Every Sunday night, a band of merry men and women dressed in Lincoln green shirts, collect food from restaurants and distribute it to the homeless and hungry all over Delhi. Borrowing their moniker from the English outlaw, the Robin Hood Army “takes from restaurants which have plenty and give it to the poor, who have only a few,” the fearless co- leader Anand Sinha tells us – only this operation is legal, and woefully devoid of Kevin Costner brandishing a bow and arrow.
Launched recently by Delhi-based entrepreneur Anand and a Zomato operations professional Neel Ghose, Robin Hood Army is modeled after Hunter Halder’s Re-Food program, an initiative to help end both hunger and food waste in Portugal. After spending some time volunteering in Portugal, Neel came back to India with the idea of starting something similar with his friends in Delhi; few weeks later, they launched Robin Hood Army. "We sat down and discussed the idea and spent the first few weeks just scouting,” Anand tells us. After identifying clusters, they reached out to their contacts in the food and restaurant industry to help out with initial rations of food.
Now, never short of volunteers and food, the army functions like clockwork. “We meet at my place, divide ourselves into groups and distribution starts at 8 pm every Sunday evening,” Anand tells us. The food, once collected, is distributed by volunteers to people who are homeless and hungry or in any other condition that leaves them without the means to secure the food they need.
Besides leftovers, restaurants like Kebab Express in Gurgaon and late- night delivery service, Midnight Munchies, provide additional services, including cooking and packing special wholesome meals like vada pav, dal chawal, khicchdi, aloo parathas and more. Restaurants like Sanjha Chulha and Madly Bangalee in CR park and Punjabi Zaika in Gurgaon have been supplying chicken and biryani. And they’re just beginning.
Feeding 500 people a night in Delhi and around 1600 across the country, Robin Hood Army has approximately 50 volunteers in the city, mostly professionals from companies such as Google, Zomato, McKinsey and law firms. As they grow and expand, they share with bpb that they plan to start their own kitchen, as they “don’t want to depend on collections alone.” With winter a few months away, the Robin Hood Army also plan to start collecting blankets, bedding and warm clothing for distribution, along with the food. Plus, they also hope to get more organized and increase their base of volunteers and partner restaurants, so they can start operating on a daily basis.
Already Robin Hood Army has become so popular that Neel and Anand have replicated the model in four other major cities: Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata; Chennai will follow soon. Additionally, they will also be launching a website to make volunteering easier.
You can contact them or join at :
https://www.facebook.com/robinhoodarmy/
http://robinhoodarmy.com/
Launched recently by Delhi-based entrepreneur Anand and a Zomato operations professional Neel Ghose, Robin Hood Army is modeled after Hunter Halder’s Re-Food program, an initiative to help end both hunger and food waste in Portugal. After spending some time volunteering in Portugal, Neel came back to India with the idea of starting something similar with his friends in Delhi; few weeks later, they launched Robin Hood Army. "We sat down and discussed the idea and spent the first few weeks just scouting,” Anand tells us. After identifying clusters, they reached out to their contacts in the food and restaurant industry to help out with initial rations of food.
Now, never short of volunteers and food, the army functions like clockwork. “We meet at my place, divide ourselves into groups and distribution starts at 8 pm every Sunday evening,” Anand tells us. The food, once collected, is distributed by volunteers to people who are homeless and hungry or in any other condition that leaves them without the means to secure the food they need.
Besides leftovers, restaurants like Kebab Express in Gurgaon and late- night delivery service, Midnight Munchies, provide additional services, including cooking and packing special wholesome meals like vada pav, dal chawal, khicchdi, aloo parathas and more. Restaurants like Sanjha Chulha and Madly Bangalee in CR park and Punjabi Zaika in Gurgaon have been supplying chicken and biryani. And they’re just beginning.
Feeding 500 people a night in Delhi and around 1600 across the country, Robin Hood Army has approximately 50 volunteers in the city, mostly professionals from companies such as Google, Zomato, McKinsey and law firms. As they grow and expand, they share with bpb that they plan to start their own kitchen, as they “don’t want to depend on collections alone.” With winter a few months away, the Robin Hood Army also plan to start collecting blankets, bedding and warm clothing for distribution, along with the food. Plus, they also hope to get more organized and increase their base of volunteers and partner restaurants, so they can start operating on a daily basis.
Already Robin Hood Army has become so popular that Neel and Anand have replicated the model in four other major cities: Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata; Chennai will follow soon. Additionally, they will also be launching a website to make volunteering easier.
You can contact them or join at :
https://www.facebook.com/robinhoodarmy/
http://robinhoodarmy.com/
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