TIRUCHY: Doing their bit in the fight against coronavirus, farmers operating from Kallukudi market are distributing vegetables free of cost to private individuals providing food to the poor and needy every day. Organised by the farmers along with social activist group Tiruchirappali Manitha Valar Sangam, more than 800 kg of vegetables have been distributed to the volunteers in the last five days.
Ever since the lockdown, hundreds of people have been depending on food supplied by Good Samaritans. The more than 2,800 vegetable farmers operating from the Kallukudi Integrated Vegetable Market have come forward to provide the vegetables. Ku Pa Krishnan, former Agriculture Minister and organiser of the farmer market in Kallukudi said, "Every day, farmers who put up stalls contribute a portion of their produce to the cause. The vegetables are collected and then distributed to the volunteers who reach out to us."
Vegetables like chow chow, tomato, cabbage and ladies finger are distributed to the volunteers by Manitha Valar Sangam. " We have shared two mobile numbers if private individuals want to reach out to us. We give vegetables to the volunteers based on the food packets they distribute every day. We base our contribution based on the assumption each person gets 250 gm of vegetables. So, if a volunteer is supplying food to 100 individuals, we can provide up to 25 ggs of vegetables to them," said Krishnan, who is also president of the Tiruchirappali Manitha Valar Sangam.
Volunteers who have collected vegetables from the group expressed gratitude for their contribution. Pon Velusamy, an activist who providing food to the mentally-challenged and differently-abled for the last one month, said, "Every day we distribute over 600 food packets. After hearing about the initiative, I collected around 18 kg of vegetables from the farmers on Saturday. It has been very helpful and I am really looking forward to collecting vegetables from them in the coming days."