Before the pandemic, Heena Mandavia and her son Harsh had a delivery kitchen in Kandivali, India. They served homemade food to anyone who stopped by.
But, when the pandemic hit, the duo decided to transform the kitchen into a social service that will feed those in need. They got inspired by an idea from one of their regular customers Abhinav Chaudhary.
Chaudhary told Harsh that he wanted to donate money so that they can feed 100 people; however, he couldn’t find anyone to help as he didn’t want to risk going out too much because of the pandemic.
After doing some research, he found a suburb in Mumbai which could offer help. The kind mom and son accepted.
Mom & Son Show Kindness & Feed those in Need
Heena and her son went into the area and used the donation from Chaudhary to provide food for 100 people in need. Their full meals consisted of sabzi, roti, rice, and dal. When the first round finished, the duo decided to continue this project.
They now feed 200 to 250 underprivileged individuals on a daily basis during lunch and dinner hours. They prepare every meal in a sanitized and hygienic kitchen and Heena is a great supervisor, making sure everything goes smoothly.
When the food is prepared, it’s taken to the distribution center and the people queue to get their free meal. And, the Mandavias’ selfless service got quite popular online.
Harsh said it all started when he shared an appreciation post on his social media after the first food donation success. After this post, people began to donate money to their project from all over India, the duo explains. Their donations keep them going.
In the first two days, they got Rs. 11000 which they used to feed those in need on a daily basis. He kept sharing photos and videos of the foods and donation drives every week and more donations were coming in.
He added that in a period of 49 days, they gathered Rs. 32 lakhs from five countries!
Selfless Service to Make Sure People in Need Have at least One Meal per Day
The amazing duo managed to prep over 5000 free meals and feed those in need.
Harsh says he loves how the people lined in the queue feel excited when they see him approaching with his car. He mentioned one of them, a lady who comes daily and they arrange for her to sit near the serving counter.
She blesses and waves at them every time they serve her warm food.
“It’s these little things”, says the wonderful duo, that encourage them to keep going!
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