Catering Industry Takes Initiatives to Help the Needy Amidst Covid-19

by EVENTFAQS Bureau Industry Watch | April 14, 2020 | News

FoodInc Cream of the Crop Saltt Gourmet Aura Foodlink Banquets and Catering India

Fear of crisis in public about COVID-19 brings out the worst of humanity, but it is also offering some encouraging stories of individuals who chose to be kind and help the needy. Particularly in the middle of the pandemic, the catering Industry is making sure to support those in quarantine and transform the canceled events into ways to give back to society. Here are few inspiring initiatives by our industry -

COTC – Cream of the Crop

Cream of the Crop is helping the Delhi government by cooking fresh meals & which is collected from them and distributed home to home in affected areas.

Vikram Singh, Director, COTC said, “I have personally visited these sites to see how things are progressing and have to say guys in the front line are doing absolutely fabulous job.

With the help of friends and family & their contributions, we are able to dispense close to 5K meals a day. I couldn’t be more grateful and must say god is super kind for choosing us to deliver this in times like these”

Saltt Catering

"We are doing our share of contributions towards the pandemic with distributing daily lunches, evening namkeen, banana, biscuits, and milk with help of Delhi Police for about 750 to 1000 underprivileged people in the Chattarpur belt of New Delhi," said Sammir S Gogia, Director Saltt Catering.

Team Saltt is even distributing ration bags with 5 kg flour, 2.5 kg rice, 2.5 kg dal, 1 kg salt and 1-liter oil. Being an animal-loving family they are feeding about 25-liter milk daily to the street dogs.

Food, Inc Catering By Yum Yum Tree

Varun Tuli, Managing Director, Yum Yum Cha Restaurants & FoodInc said, "We have joined hands with NRAI and local authorities to provide free meals to innumerable people in need and who are unable to make their ends meet during the COVID-19 lockdown."

They have put forward FoodInc, Yum Yum Cha and Noshi Kitchens and volunteer workforce in Delhi NCR which is currently preparing over 10,000 meals each day for migrant daily wage workers.

FoodInc, Yum Yum Cha and Noshi were all moulded on compassion, generosity, kindness & gratefulness. There is no greater feeling than being able to provide meals to those in need. FoodInc strive to scale what they are doing. They recently started the option to receive donations that will enable us to feed more people on donate.yumyumcha.com

Gourmet Aura

Kumar Sambhav. Managing Director, Gourmet Aura Catering Company said, “Entire Gourmet Aura team is working hard to cook & deliver 3000 to 4000 meals daily for our brothers & sisters who are stuck in various detention centres. It gives me satisfaction to be able to support the society by this Noble cause. I pray to people to unite & fight this pandemic by staying locked at home as that’s the only solution.”

Foodlink Services India Pvt. Ltd.

Sanjay Vazirani, CMD, Foodlink Services India Pvt. Ltd. said, "I am proud of my team for being on the frontlines and doing an absolutely fabulous job. We are cooking over 15000 meals a day. We are grateful that Foodlink has this opportunity to give back to society through such trying times. I must add it is a different level of fulfillment as compared to executing a top of the line luxury event."

Through the crisis of COVID-19, Foodlink Services initiated 'The Khichdi Project' to reduce the growing hopelessness of the daily wage workers, police force and those in quarantine with a satisfying, nutritious and healthy meal. The Foodlink team is cooking fresh meals every day in their ISO compliant and hygienic central kitchen in Chembur, Mumbai.

The packets are being distributed in affected areas via NGO's and police stations like Giant’s NESH (Nobody Ever Sleeps Hungry), Project Mumbai, Rotary Club, YMCA, Jio Roti Ghar, Tehsildar’s office, Land surveyor's office, and police stations in Sion, Navi Mumbai, and Mulund. Over 1.5 Lakh food packets have been distributed so far.

Blue Sea Banquets

K Hospitality Corp owned, Blue Sea Banquets (Worli) and Life Co. have collaborated with the NGO Yuva to provide simple and healthy meals for our frontline workers from the police force, BMC, hospitals, daily wage laborers and homeless people in the current crisis situation through a company project Karuna Seva for our country’s Karuna Warriors.

Karan Kapur, Executive Director K-Hospitality said, “We’re all sitting comfortably in quarantine while there are a huge number of our essential services workers as well as thousands of homeless people who would be having difficulty getting their daily meals. Being in the food business and strongly in-line with our principle of “people first”, we wanted to help in this time of crisis. With YUVA’s stellar network and drive towards the same cause, Blue Sea Banquet’s infrastructure and Life Co’s catering expertise, we have built a seamless structure to be able to successfully identify the requirements in the city, prepare healthy, hygienic, tasty meals (under strict hygiene standards), and distribute them directly to our frontline workers.”

Part of the cost is being borne by YUVA and part by K Hospitality. They are currently doing 6000 meals a day and are looking to scale this up to 20000 meals every day. YUVA is additionally raising funds to make this scalable and sustainable.