Three good Samaritans with a will to serve society with food and oxygen
CHANDIGARH: Three businessmen in the ‘City Beautiful’ have come forward with food and oxygen to help the needy Covid patients. Their only condition is a recipient must show a Covid positive report so that their services are not misused.
“My mother had Covid-19 and through her, we came to know that there are many families in the city who find it difficult to cook food due to the virus. We have been providing food to these families since April 21. We have served more than 2,000 meals a day, including breakfast, lunch and dinner,” says Ankush Arora, owner of an American food chain, Uncle Jack’s.
"The hot homecooked food is served in re-heatable paper containers, so if required, it can just be re-microwaved,” he adds. It is a rich spread from Uncle Jack’s Poha, mixed vegetables, Dalia, Keema Kulcha, Pao Bhaji, chapati, Kadhi, and Rajma- Chawal.
“Our objective is that the people should get nutritious and tasty food. So, we keep tweaking the menu to avoid food boredom,’’ say Arora. He has a team of 25 people working for him from 4.30 am to 7 pm. Arora’s efforts are complemented by MPS Chawla, owner of Hotel Altius who, along with his daughter-in-law Prakriti Chawla and in collaboration with the NGO People United for Better Life in City Foundation has been arranging free ‘langar’ (community meals).
Their services are focused on the families who are unable to cook at home. “Since April 19, we have been serving lunch and dinner to 500 families in Chandigarh. We have given our WhatsApp number for people to drop a message for the packed homecooked food. We deliver it at their doorstep along with a bottle of sanitiser,” says Chawla.
A volunteer after dropping the food calls up the family to pick it up from their main door, so there is no physical interaction.
“Our kitchen starts around 5 am and we close our operations late evening,” says Chawla. He has a 10-man team who drive five vehicles to drop the food. Another team of 15 members work in the kitchen. They serve seasonal vegetables, dal, rice and chapatis along with kheer and so on. “We run free meals despite facing losses in our business,’’ he said.
Businessman Rupinder Singh Sachdeva, who owns Hitech Industries Ltd in Mohali, Punjab, suffered from Covid last month and recovered. The ailment made him realise the importance of medical oxygen for the needy. Then on, he has arranged refilling of 40,000 cylinders. “We don’t charge for our work,” he says. “A few days back I gave 1,500 oxygen cylinders free-of-cost to an NGO. This is our time to serve humanity,’’ he says.