After the day’s drudgery, Saroja gathers her children around her at an underconstruction site in Chamarajpet, Old Bengaluru area, to prepare dinner. It’s only 4.30pm, but such is their routine –early to bed and early to rise.
As Saroja, a migrant labourer from Raichur, is about to get on with cooking, a visitor lands at the site. He has in his hand whatever they have been craving for–vegetable pulao, plain rice, sambar and payasam–a three-course meal, sufficient to feed all hungry souls.
Yuvaraj M, a private firm employee from Chamarajpet, didn’t surprise Saroja and her hungry children for the first time. “He has come here before.About 20 of us, along with 10 children, work and live here.Luckily , he manages to come before we cook our food, each time,” Saroja said.
Driven by the motto, “we have the right to eat, not to waste”, the 26-year-old has been delivering food to poor labourers who build our city . On Thursday, while he was giving food to Saroja, he got a call from NR Rajendra Harsha, manager, Sankalp Banquet Hall in Banashankari informing him about excess food at an event that could feed at least 150 people.
Like Rajendra, Yuvaraj has built a network of people who alert him whenever there’s excess food. “I always felt that food should never be cooked in large quantities and wasted. I started this initiative to create awareness about judicious cooking among citizens. It’s been about two years and today , the purpose has changed and instead of cutting it short at source, many people choose to offer it to labourers through me,” said Yuvaraj.
“We cater food at weddings, engagements and other events in the city so we know how painful it is to see our hard work goes waste. Now even our customers are happy that food is not being wasted,” Manjoy PV from GR Celebration said.
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