Story of Sitaram Das Baba- who has been feeding 500 people daily for the last 36 years
There is a saying that ‘if you feed others who are in an empty stomach, then you are considered on par with God. We will learn about a special person named Sitaram Das Baba who cooks for 500 people in a day for absolutely free of cost. Yes, you read it right! He does not charge even a penny from the less unfortunate ones.
Feeding any hungry person gives him a great scene of accomplishment. He has, in fact, dedicated the last 36 years of his life to this noble work. The same Baba Sitaram’s ashram is near the Ramnath Swamy temple which is located at Keelavasal. When the tourists and devotees go there they get to eat good and don’t return back empty stomach.
It is also believed that the name of Sitaram Baba’s ashram is Bajrang Das Baba Ashram and both North Indian and South Indian dishes are served in this ashram.
Sitaram Baba’s ashram is always open to all people and there is no discrimination on the basis of religion, caste, gender, etc. Sitaram Baba wakes up at five in the morning so that he cooks food for the people who come to the ashram. Also, his ashram runs with donations from people. Sitaram Baba has a small team of 10 people who assist him in running the ashram.
Meet Pandit Dasa- The man who feeds millions of school children across several states in India
In the past 2 decades, India has seen significant growth with a population of over 1.3 billion. Foodgrain production has doubled up almost two times. There is plenty of food in our country yet the poor are starving. Despite having so many resources to boost industrial and economic growth, the nation still has nothing to show for people starving day in day out.
According to a survey, 190.7 million people go hungry every day, 3,000 children die every day from poor diet-related illness in India. It is no surprise that “Rich are getting richer and Poor are getting poorer”. It is difficult to explain the conditions of poor people who can’t afford to buy food and thereby they fail to meet the caloric demands of the body.
Day by day, their stomachs keep growling but they are left with no other option as they survive somehow eating from garbage. Celebrities on TV channels claim that they are donating a whopping amount to the poor and needy, but on the ground level, the truth is different.
Akshaya Patra was founded in 2000, with the mission that “no child in India should be deprived of education because of hunger.”
The foundation aims to provide nutritious and hygienic meals to children in government schools through India’s ambitious mid-day meal scheme (MDM). It is the largest organized mid-day meal intervention in India, Akshaya Patra (AP) feeds nearly 17 lakh children every day, which is something spectacular.
They are partnered with the Government of India (GOI) and various State Governments. They don’t run short of money as they receive enormous funds from higher authorities. Currently, it’s the world’s largest (not-for-profit run) mid-day meal programme feeding over 1.66 million children from 11,548 schools across 12 states in India. Thanks to the Chairman of Akshaya Patra Foundation (AP), Madhu Pandit Dasa. Isn’t he a great soul?
“The success of the pilot encouraged us to expand the initiative to 4 locations where we provided mentorship to over 300 children in areas of their interest,” he added according to India Today. Further, he said that:
“This is also an occasion to say it is just a step forward — there are millions more dreams to be given a chance.” On the occasion, India Today Education had an exclusive conversation with Chanchalapathi Dasa, Vice Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, to know more about the foundation’s initiative and goals.
He said: “When we are providing mid-day meal on daily basis, we see there are many hidden talents in India. But, the children studying in government schools don’t have the right environment to bring out their talent.” Adding to this, Dasa said:
“The big schools in India have various clubs like robotics, dance, and music. But, children of government schools don’t have these clubs. Two years back, we went did a pilot project, looking for children who have very unusual dreams”
The foundation makes sure that no child in India sleeps hungry. Being asked whether Akshaya Patra Foundation would be able to reach every child in India, the vice-chairman Chanchalapathi Dasa said, “According to the Global Hunger Index report released by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), India ranks 100th among 119 developing countries. The country is home to the second-highest population of undernourished people in the world despite being the world’s second-largest food producer.”
Speaking about the challenges, the vice-chairman said: “We only serve fresh food and the biggest thing in our mind every day is that the food should be safe. We have in all 36 kitchens and they all are ISO certified. And in a diverse country like India, implementing a programme of this scale is bound to be a challenging task.”
There For instance, said Dasa, when it became difficult to manually prepare rotis in bulk, “we developed an indigenous roti-making machine which dished out 10,000 rotis every hour. We further worked on it and today it can dish out 40,000 Rotis an hour!”
“Moreover, while the food production is going on we have quality officials who are BSc in Food Technology, checking and seeing whether the food temperature and cleanness is maintained,” he said.
Vice-chairman Dasa said that school authorities are cooperative as they make the work easier by serving the food to children in lunchtime. “School authorities are very cooperative when it comes to the Mid-Day Meal Programme. While there are helpers for actually serving the food to children, the headmaster and teachers are always around to make sure that the whole process goes on in a smooth manner,” said Dasa.
Not just for children, the foundation feeds even pregnant women as well as homeless citizens.”We also provide food for pregnant women and lactating mothers under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme. It is covered under the Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) which also includes food for children in the age group of 6 months to 6 years,” the VC of Akshaya Patra said.
Akshaya Patra also planned to feed 5 million children in every school in a day by the year 2020. Taking about the foundation’s target to feed over 5 million children by 2020, Chanchalapathi Dasa said, “We are in talks with other State Governments to extend our services which will add to the overall feeding volume.”
He further added that every new unit will steer them a step closer to accomplishing their mission of reaching 5 million children.
Humanity still exists: Man spends 1.2 lakh every month to feed the POOR!
When nobody came forward to feed the hungry stomachs, a Hyderabad citizen, identified as Hyder Moosvi hit the headlines for feeding the poor every month. Isn’t this man a wonderful soul? or maybe there is no adjective or superlative to describe him in one word.
He spends Rs.1.2 lakh from his own pocket not just once but every month only to feed the poor and help the needy. Now this man deserves huge media attention. Several other media keeps running behind celebrities. But, we need to promote this man for his priceless work. Let’s really hope that one-day higher authority would come forward to resolve all the problems.
Hyder Moosvi turned a good Samaritan since 2015, by providing food packets 8 to 10 times on a monthly basis. Whenever he sees poor people starving for hunger, he immediately buys the food and distributes to them for free of cost. This goes to show that he is indeed a man for the society. He instilled faith that ‘humanity’ still exists on this planet.
“We started food distribution in the year 2015, but at that time we use to distribute eight to ten times in a month. From 31 March 2017, we started distributing food daily at Dabeerpura bridge. People who can’t afford food come here from various places, stand in line and take food packets. We are really happy to serve those in need,” he told ANI
Young Engineer feeds homeless daily and ensures nobody sleeps hungry
This is a heart-touching story of Hari Singh, who is an electrical engineer by profession, has been working hard with a vision of eradicating hunger from his town, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. This young man’s aim to serve humanity led him to set up ‘Voices Of Humanity’ with the goal that no human sleeps hungry at night.
Started in the year 2015 by Hari along with a few young volunteers, this non-profit organization connects people from diverse backgrounds who want to help the needy with their service. Currently, they’re operating with a team of more than 250 members and run many campaigns to help the poor and the underprivileged.
Sharing his experiences with The Logical Indian website, Hari says,” It always pinched me to see the poor eating out of the food thrown in dustbins. Every day, there is a lot of food wasted at various functions while there are other’s sleeping on the streets who cannot even afford one meal a day. Thinking of the disparity, I started the organization to help such people. By serving them, I feel that I am able to rekindle the lost faith in humanity and bring people together to work towards a larger goal.”
Hari also credits his team members who work tirelessly even during shivering December winters, just to make sure that the food reaches to the starving or malnourished.
“Apart from working as food facilitators, we’ve been working on several other campaigns such as Mission Shakshar to educate the underprivileged,” Hari shares.
“Our team also teaches around 90 children who have been suffering from leprosy in Devnagar basti. The quality of education in government schools is degrading day by day. Children hailing from such background remain the worst sufferers and they need to be motivated often to continue their education under such grim circumstances,” Hari tells The Logical Indian.
The Youth salutes Hari Singh for restoring faith in humanity.
Hyderabad Man spends his salary, sets world record of serving food to 1000 hungry stomachs
Meet Gowtham Kumar, founder of Hyderabad-based NGO named “Serve Needy”, got himself included into Universal Book of Records for serving food to more than 1,000 people and that too in a single day.
Mr Kumar who is on a significant mission, accomplished the target after he served food to more than 1,000 hungry stomachs at three different places. First, he served food at Gandhi Hospital, then at Rajendra Nagar and finally at Amma Nanna orphanage home in Chowtuppal.
The prestigious award was presented by ‘Universal Book of Records’ India representative KV Ramana Rao and Telangana representative TM Srilatha.
Talking to news agency ANI, Mr Kumar said, “I started Serve Needy organisation in 2014 and now we have around 140 volunteers. We have been doing these types of social activities since 2014. But today, I have served food to more than 1,000 people single-handedly. So, it was a world record.”
“Universal Book of Records has given me the certificate for the same. My organisation’s main motto is ”No one deserves to die like an orphan when our organisation is there”. We are expanding our organisation so that no one will die in hunger. We are expecting help from others and the government to help more people,” he added.
