The trip was very successful on multiple fronts. I believe we have a very strong foundation on which to build (thanks to very strong work by David Prendergast).
The trip began in Chennai with a visit to the Chennai Food Bank. The Lions in Mumbai have indicated an interest in using the Chennai model as the base for the food banks there; I wanted to see firsthand with how that model works. I spent the better part of a day at the food bank learning about its history, its model for collection and distribution, the logistics requirements, and the administrative infrastructure. I also visited an orphanage served by the food bank. In this model – A Fistful of Rice – the food bank depends on the public for collections of grains (primarily rice) and funds to purchase grains. They receive very few commercial donations from the food industry, and make no effort to solicit such donations. The concept is rooted in an ancient India tradition whereby the individual acts on his/her obligation to support the less fortunate in their community.
In Mumbai, I met with the Lions Clubs Regional Office for India, South Asia, and East Africa. The three District Governors for District 323 (A1, A2, A3) and several others from the district participated in the meeting. The meeting began with a briefing on GFN and its work and an overview of the Mumbai project to date. We discussed a number of operational details at length, with GFN providing information on best practices. There was unanimous agreement that the project should proceed but that the model should be expanded. The group agreed that the food bank may begin on the Fistful of Rice model but should be expanded to include extensive partnership building with the food industry to generate donations of surplus and unsalable products. All around the table committed the time and dedicated “staffing” (volunteer time) to establish and maintain an effective planning process; GFN will provide additional information and documents to aid in that effort. A follow-up teleconference meeting will focus on framing out the planning process and assigning appropriate sub-committees to effectively move the project forward.
The majority of the trip I was in Delhi / Gurgaon. I had meetings with Cargill, Bharti Wal-Mart, KPMG, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Operation ASHA, and Aidmatrix India.
The first full day in Delhi involved the meeting with Aidmatrix. This is the Indian office of a US-based (Dallas) nonprofit foundation that is focused on creating and promulgating technology solutions to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the global service community. GFN has a Memorandum Of Understanding with Aidmatrix to be our technology partner globally, and we have had a number of meetings with them in India. Aidmatrix is a relatively new presence in that country, and their primary focus has been on the Corporate Disaster Resource Network (CDRN) project – a joint venture with CSO Partners and National Disaster Management Authority of the Government of India (GOI). Very recent expansion of the staffing complement has facilitated the expansion of focus beyond CDRN, and the Aidmatrix Team is very focused on working to address food insecurity.
Aidmatrix is very interested in playing a key role as our primary in-country NGO partner to develop and advance the plan for food bank establishment in India. We discussed extensively the best approach to the planning process, identifying materials and documents to share that will help their fulfillment of that role, and set a general timeframe for implementation.
Aidmatrix had set November 16 for a day-long conference on food insecurity in India prior to our discussion. We agreed to take advantage of that event to formally launch the Planning Forum – a planning committee comprised of key representatives from the GOI, the business community, and the NGO community. We had several follow-up discussions and Aidmatrix staff accompanied me on all my visits in Delhi / Gurgaon. We are focused on some additional transfer of information and on the design of the Planning Forum and the planning process.
The meetings with the corporations went well. All are very interested in participating with the planning process and seeing the reality of food banking develop in the Delhi / Gurgaon area.
Next Trip:
I plan a return trip November 7 – 21.
