Growing up, a lot of us were fortunate enough to have our mothers or grandmas chase us to persuade us to eat one last bite of food. However, there are thousands of children across the country who pine for the same last bite and struggle for one square meal a day.?
Pathikrit Saha - a Zomato delivery executive based out of Kolkata - has dedicated all his time and efforts for such kids.
A recent online publication shared Saha's story saying that he's almost treated like an elder brother to street kids for whom he provides food. When people cancel a food order on the app, Saha redirects that food to these kids.
Speaking to a publication, Saha revealed said that his journey started four years ago, "I was crossing the streets near Dumdum Cantonment in Kolkata, when a dishevelled teenager came running and fell at my feet. He started begging desperately for money. I understood he was heavily drug addicted and wanted money to waste on cheap, harmful drugs."
"I tried to dissuade him, but his desperation was so wild and pathetic that I slapped him and he broke down. That¡¯s where my story begins", he said.
Saha who used to work with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, quit his job to dedicate all his energy to the benefit of the underprivileged kids.?
He started by running classes on a Railway platform for kids and taught them basic subjects. The number of kids who joined his classes started steadily rising.?Many kids went on to join government schools.?
Over time, Saha had to look for another job to sustain his family and he applied to be a delivery executive with Zomato. Little did he know, that this job would help him more with his noble initiative of supporting street kids.
Initially he teamed up with a restaurant in DumDum, Kolkata, whose owner was willing to give him the excess food that gets wasted, so he could take it for the kids.
Addressed fondly by the kids as ¡®Roll Kaku¡¯ (Roll Uncle), he daily provides egg rolls, fried rice and all other items whose orders get cancelled.
"Now, the cancelled orders from Zomato and all the excess food from his restaurant come to my kids as their evening snacks, sometimes dinner."
According to the report, when a order gets cancelled on Zomato it is usually given away to the delivery guys, but now the app has partnered with an NGO to redirect the wasted food to people in need.
"So much food is wasted from restaurants every day, and not even 1% of it reaches these hungry kids. I appeal to all restaurant owners and food delivery guys to take this into account and reach out to the kids in their neighbourhood," says Saha whose?non-profit venture, Help Foundation, has recently been formally registration.