A group of young men in Mahoba district have started a “roti bank” where they collect leftover “rotis” from homes and then distribute them among the homeless and poor.
A group of young men in Mahoba district have started a “roti bank” where they collect leftover “rotis” from homes and then distribute them among the homeless and poor. The youths, led by Mr Haji Parvez Ahmad, started this initiative a few months ago and the group has been growing in strength.
One of the youth in the group who refused to be identified because “we are not doing this for publicity,” said that they started going around in different localities, asking people to give us any leftover food, especially rotis.
“Once we collected some rotis, we would go around the town looking for homeless people and give them the food. Gradually people started appreciating our efforts and gave us food willingly. We found a spare room and used it as our workplace to keep the collected food and then put it in packets so that distribution becomes easier,” he said.
The youth said that when they started the “roti bank,” they promised themselves that they would not seek publicity out of the campaign. “The purpose of our initiative would be lost if we sought publicity,” he added. The initiative has become popular and people send food that is leftover during weddings and parties.
The group now feeds 250-300 people every day. From January, the youths plan to distribute the food in tiffins instead of plastic bags.
“One donor has sent us 1,000 tiffin boxes and we will start using them from the next month,” the youth said.
