Weddings and Wastage
By Rushi Vyas
This post was originally published on June 19, 2019.
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We Indians love to eat, as well as feed others. And weddings, events or parties in India mean plenty of food around. Unfortunately, the amount of food wasted is appalling, considering there are so many among us that can’t even manage a meal a day.
In fact, 2.5 crore functions happen in the country every year, and India’s estimated 10 million weddings a year contribute significantly to its annual food waste, worth about US$14 billion in losses. The rich and consumable food that gets thrown in dumps post wedding functions can be used to serve around 100 to a maximum of 4,000 people! To tackle this problem, we introduced the ‘Meals With Love’ campaign.
In December 2018, some friends Feeding India approached us, and asked if the extra wedding food could be collected that would otherwise go to waste. We took this forward by starting a campaign and putting up a google form on our website. It took the cost of just one plate for us to run the entire operations- transportation, handling, food donation and quality of the food.
In a span of 2 months, we managed to cover 35–40 weddings serving around 4000 meals in all. Encouragingly, Kapil Sharma, a popular actor and television host also reached out to us, to donate all the excess food from all his wedding events!
We partnered with WedMeGood and Weddings In (now a part of OYO) on May 28th, 2019 for the collection and donation of all the extra food from the weddings booked and managed through their portals towards the less privileged.
Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year, i.e. ~1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted, while 820 million people suffer hunger and malnutrition. At The Feeding Foundation, we are a team of passionate optimists and determined volunteers working to bridge this gap and help build healthier communities across the globe.
Our mission is to create interventions that lead to the reduction in global hunger and food wastage through advocacy, innovation, community participation and partnerships.
In addition to empowering motivated citizens with the tools and technology they need, we also partner with public and private institutions, businesses, grassroot groups and investors to solve one of the biggest and most pressing challenges in the world — hunger and food wastage.
Celebrate your event with an auspicious act and help in spreading smiles by donating extra food from weddings, events and help serve people in need. Sign up here to list your event with us.
