Mom and son serve homemade food to the needy during the pandemic

mom son feed the needy pandemic

By Veronica Chan , Parent Herald Jul 19, 10:11 pm

A mom and son in Kandivali run a delivery kitchen, but now, they feed hungry people. Harsh Mandavia and his mom, Heena, used to run a delivery service before the pandemic, now they are serving homemade food for the needy.

A regular customer initiative

Harsh told The Times of India that every day, he and his mom provide food for about 200 to 250 needy people for lunch and dinner. He shared that one of their regular customers, Abhinav Chaudhary, came up to him a few months ago. He said that that customer wished to donate money to feed 100 people.

Since the customer did not want to risk contracting the virus, he asked Harsh to find the needy people. After doing some research, the son found a place outside a Gurudwara. It is the place where they did the first round of feeding. They feed a hundred poor people by serving them a full meal that included roti, sabzi, dal, and rice.

(Photo : Instagram/harsh_mandavia)

Donations poured after the post

Harsh posted an appreciation post on social media then donations started pouring in. He said that everything began when he shared with the public about the first food donation activity they did. He said that after that, people all over India started donating money online.

The son explained that they received Rs. 11,000 in the first two days. Afterward, they started giving out food for the need daily. He said that he kept posting photos and videos of their food donation drive every week.

Donations keep coming because of their posts. Harsh said that they had reached Rs 3.2 lakhs in 49 days from five countries. They have already served more than 5,000 homemade meals for the many hungry people in India. Since they think of the health of the people, they also served more than 13,000 tawa rotis, which are made of whole wheat atta.

(Photo : Instagram/harsh_mandavia)

Helping needy people

Harsh said that most people who come to seek free food come from needy families in slums and watchmen. There are also coming from the daily wage earners who are jobless for the last three months-people who are BMC garbage collectors, rickshaw drivers, and other underprivileged people.

The son shared that when people waiting in line see his car approaching, they feel elated. The people would shout "roti aagaya, roti aagaya" as they make way for the car. Harsh said that they arranged a sit near the serving counter for one differently-abled lady. The lady keeps waving and blessing them every time they serve her food. He said that incidents such as that encourage them to do more.

The son said that they plan to continuously provide free full meals for those hungry people until the end of July.

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