TIRUVANANTHAPURAM : In a country where hundreds still feel hunger pangs, a lot of food is being wasted. And, determined to stop this is Hunger Free Ananthapuri (HRA), an organisation run by a group of volunteers. They have undertaken an initiative to distribute free food, aiming to eliminate hunger.
HRA was started by Abhijith, Manjula, Varun, Harish and Gokul. The group collects food from different places and distributes it to the poor. “The concept is simple. We collect leftover food from hotels and cafeterias and distribute it to hungry people,” says Varun, a group member.
Started one year ago, HRA has received an encouraging response from all quarters. “For some it means nothing, but for us it means a lot. Currently, we are supplying homely foods to patients at various hospital.Earlier, we used to distribute food through the group ‘Eat at Trivandrum,” he adds. Every Sunday, HRA distributes food, mainly rice gruel and curry, to people in hospitals and they feed more than 40 people every Sunday from the food they collect from ‘Kappayum Kattanum’, a local restaurant.
At present, HRA has 22 members. “When we initially started distributing food, only few members were there. But, a lot of people are joining us now in this mission to create a hunger-free society,” said Varun.With no plans of stopping what they do, Varun says the team has been bearing the expenses from their own pocket. “We have plans to expand this to other parts of the state as well. Now, our plan is to distribute free food in orphanages for Onam,” he says.