Sitava moved her family 30 kilometers from their hometown of Anandgiri Karnataka, India for the opportunity to earn a daily wage. When the COVID-19 crisis hit and lockdowns came into effect, Sitava’s work disappeared, and with it, her ability to provide for her family or return home.
For millions of daily wagers like Sitava, India’s COVID-19 lockdowns have turned precarious situations into dangerous ones. Without the ability to work, millions of daily wagers urgently need help getting enough food to feed their families.
The Zomato Feeding India food bank has targeted its focus to meet the growing needs of daily wagers in dire need of support. Through their Feed the Daily Wager program, the food bank has provided more than 600,000 hunger relief ration kits since the end of March to daily wagers like Sitava—the equivalent of more than 63 million meals. “The current situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world, and our country, to its knees,” said Ankit Kawatra, Founder of Zomato Feeding India. “The fact that daily wage earners don’t even have food to sustain themselves is a very unsettling feeling, and we want to change that.”
GFN supports Feeding India’s development and capacity expansion through remote technical assistance, information sharing, mentoring sessions with food bank leaders around the world, connections to food sourcing partners, and funding to support their Feed the Daily Wager program.
Sitava was brought to tears when she received a ration kit that would feed her family for an entire week. They were tears of relief, but also tears of hope—for a future when she can provide for her family once again.
