VIJAYAWADA: Vijayawada’s Margam Foundation has come to the rescue of Covid patients in home isolation, and provides them nutritious food at their doorstep for no charge. All that one needs to do is contact the foundation on their helpline handled by a team of volunteers a day in advance.
A Lakshmi Annapurna, its founder, said she had first-hand experience of the problems that a person in home isolation faces when she was infected in October.
“I was under home isolation for almost two weeks, and could not even cook for myself in the period. After I recovered, I started working on the problem, and decided to serve food to others in isolation. However, I was able to capitalise on my goal in the Covid second wave.”
Through her foundation, Annapurna has been providing 250 meals a day to patients and their family members in Moghalrajpuram, Satyanarayanapuram, One Town, Vidhyadharapuram, Brundhavan Colony, Krishna Lanka, Benz Circle, BRTS Road and Gunadala.
“I started the initiative with my investment of Rs 2 lakh, and the remaining funds were donated by philanthropists. Volunteers gather details of the infectees under home isolation and their families. RT-PCR results, Aadhar card and their residential address details should be provided one day in advance and the order must be placed before 11 pm,” Annapurna said.
A centralised kitchen was set up in One Town to prepare the meals by maintaining the hygiene protocols. The menu for lunch consists of rice, dal, dry fruits, ladoo, a vegetable curry, chutney, sambar/rasam and curd. Two volunteers are assigned to each locality to ensure that food is delivered to the patients on time. Each meal costs the foundation Rs 75, and Annapurna spends Rs 20,000 per day.
“We want to add a few more items to the menu to make the food taste better. But due to funds crunch, we are facing difficulty to reach out to more patients. A few who order meals from us make contributions for our services.”
She said a section of police personnel aware of the foundation’s activities is not stopping the delivery personnel.
“We request the police personnel to provide us vehicle passes and permissions so that more number of patients even in remote localities can be reached out to,” Margam founder said. “Plans are also afoot to launch counseling for patients who order meals from us, and keep them motivated.”