NGO to use programme to help end hunger
PANAJI
With tonnes going waste daily, Street Providence, an organisation which shelters and aids homeless people has launched an initiative to save food discarded by factories in Goa and put it to use to defeat hunger.
Donald Fernandes who heads the NGO said their innovative ‘food bank’ programme will help shoot two birds in one shot -- avoid food wastage and defeat hunger across Goa.
According to the 2024 Global Hunger Index, India ranks at 105, indicating that millions of people go to bed hungry, while food waste in the country has surged to nearly 78 million tonnes annually.
“India discards around 78 million tonnes of food waste every year, yet people go hungry,” Fernandes said while speaking to the media even as he claimed that if people starve when at the same time food goes waste points to a fundamental flaw in the system.
Dwelling on his experience for the past seven years, when Street Providence collected surplus food to feed the needy, Fernandes opined that food related factories in GIDC estates alone discard approximately 5 tonnes of food daily.
This year, Street Providence intends to focus canteens of factories in GIDC’s industrial estate in Verna as a source of fresh, nutritious meals that would otherwise go to waste.
“Nearly 3,000 kilograms of fresh factory food is disposed off by canteen contractors in Goa. If we can channel that food to those in need, we can make a real difference,” Fernandes said.
Over the past six months, Street Providence has partnered with nine factories, to save 300-400 kilos of fresh food daily. This surplus is then distributed to people in Vasco, where they collect it in metal containers, helping reduce plastic usage and wet waste at the same time.
Fernandes claims the model could later be scaled up with support from the government. “We’re appealing to the Goa government to take this issue seriously,” Fernandes said, adding that with the support of statutory authorities like labour department and factories and boilers, the initiative could be replicated pan-Goa.
He questioned the logic of the government making companies to pay for disposal of biomedical and chemical waste but no thought is given for disposal of food which is a precious resource in our country where millions go hungry every day.
