Hyderabad:It is estimated that presently about 25-30% of food within GHMC limits is wasted. The excess food is either informally disposed or collected by GHMC vehicles under the bulk garbage collection initiative.

 

Realizing the importance of conserving excess food and in line with the Sustainable Development Goals of United Nations of a hunger free world, GHMC has developed a new environmental initiative - “FEED THE NEED” App. The program envisages 

 Facility to collect excess food available with Hotels, Homes, Functions and Online Food Suppliers

 At present 30 strategically located refrigerators within GHMC limits to enable stocking of excess food.

 Tie-up with NGOs to ensure that the excess food reaches the needy

 

Feed The Need is developed for mobile phones. It allows the user to register as a food donor and offers an option of a collect / drop off at the nearest fridge. The fridge locations (30 as of now) are on a GIS platform allowing easy locating. An SMS alert is received by the NGO partners who arrange for a pick up. Simultaneously the NGO also has the requisitions from various institutions having a need for the food. Online monitoring of the entire operations is possible to ensure easy collection and distribution.

The app has been developed by a start up Rathh founded by Sri. Raja Ashutosh Kumar Buddhiraju an alumnus of IIT Kanpur.

 

While launching the app GHMC Commissioner Sri. M Danakishore, IAS said that the app Feed The Need was need of the hour. While a section of the population is struggling for food, 25-30% of the food is being wasted. Feed The Need program brings together the needy as well as those who have surplus food. This is definitely one of GHMC’s flagship programs and will go a long way in contributing to reduction of food waste as also increasing societal involvement.

 

H.W Mayor Sri. Bonthu Rammohan, speaking on the occasion complimented GHMC for taking up yet another initiative benefitting the urban poor. He called up on corporate institutions to join hands in Feed The Need Program and enable establishing of more fridges to cover the entire GHMC area.

 

Smt. Hari Chandana, IAS Additional Commissioner CSR spoke about the Feed The Need initiative and emphasized on the need of civil society, corporate entitles joining hands with GHMC in order to usher in new and innovative approaches in managing urban food waste. She said that large number of hotels and institutions were part of the initiative and requested other institutions in GHMC area to join hands.

 

Partners:

Ideation Partner:

EPTRI (Environment Protection Training and Research Institute)

Implementation Partners for fridges:

 Apple Homes NGO –Concept Partner

 Agha Khan Trust

 

 Robinhood Army –NGO Implementation Partner

 Feed in India

 

UBER Eats – Corporate Partner: Commenting on the partnership, Bhavik Rathod, Head of Uber Eats India and South Asia said, “At Uber Eats, we’ve always been committed to serve the communities and cities we operate in. We believe that with GHMC purpose-led initiative and Uber Eats network and technology, we can contribute toward solving for hunger in Hyderabad.”

 

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation launched an innovative app solution to locate hunger zones and build food refrigerators across the city. Committed to an aligned mission to encourage equal distribution of food, Uber Eats will extend its support by depositing food from cancelled orders on the app to the nearest collection zone. The delivery will be carried out by an Uber Eats courier partner, who will have the option to choose a drop-point nearby.

Since its launch in India, Uber Eats has been committed to leverage its technology-backed data insights to predict demand and reduce wastage across the 38 cities it is present in. Uber Eats has an existing partnership with the NGOs ‘Feeding India’ and ‘Robin Hood Army’. Through these associations, Uber Eats delivers leftover food from restaurants to the NGOs, that is then further distributed to hungry stomachs across the neighbourhood.