Love these Robin Hoods!

Heard about the Robin Hood Army? Unlike plundering the rich to distribute it to the poor, this unique army requests for leftover food from restaurants and then distributes it to the poor and needy. Wearing green T-shirts, this army roams the streets of Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Bengaluru every Sunday night, distributing food packet to those sleeping and living under the flyovers, near dustbins, in pipes. This army’s aim is only one – feed the footpath dwellers.

This is the noble venture started by a set of two Delhi guys – 26 year old Neel Ghose and 27 year old Anand Sinha. It was the brainchild of Ghose. He had gone volunteering in Portugal, an NGO , Re-food. There he learnt the concept of how one can go requesting restaurants for giving away the leftover food, which most do readily instead of allowing it to rot. That food is then collected, put in small containers and distributed to the needy. Re-food was started as a small do-good venture by one man , Hunter Halder, who collected and distributed the food alone on a bicycle. Today, he has 1500 volunteers and feeds some 50,000 people daily.

Ghose was inspired by this man and his Robin Hood Army was born out of this volunteering stint.  With the wedding season around the corner, his volunteers are contacting all the caterers to chip in after a marriage celebration, where tons of food is wasted. And the objective is to distribute not once a week but daily. Today, this noble cause has some 120 volunteers and food is given to some 1600 people. Hope this clan spreads far and wide and wipes out hunger from the face of India! And yes, volunteering is indeed a life changing experience…..