This Independence Day, the Robin Hood Army (RHA), a volunteer organisation operating in 30 cities across seven countries, will facilitate a unique project to bring together Indians and Pakistanis and feed around five lakh hungry citizens on both sides of the border under #Mission500K, by collecting extra food from “affluent restaurants”.
Along with RHA, #Mission500K would be facilitated by several start-up companies like Uber, Zomato, Oyo, Grofers, Snapdeal among others. The RHA was started in August 2014 and has about 5,200 volunteers who work on the model of collecting extra food from restaurants to feed hungry citizens of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Philippines and Australia. “Hunger is a common problem for both India and Pakistan and every day, so much food gets wasted and yet people sleep hungry on both sides of the border. This is what motivated us to feed the hungry irrespective of physical borders that exist between the two countries,” Apurv Mishra, RHA co-founder, said. Apart from the several startups, Vh1 music channel is driving the message through the music fraternity with artistes, musicians and singers like Farhan Akhtar, Uday Benegal, Vishal Dadlani, coming together for the nationwide movement. Farhan Akhtar and Uday Benegal have launched “Realign”, the #Mission500k anthem, to spread the word through music. Volunteer teams from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad would work and coordinate to make the mission successful.