Volunteers deliver food to home-isolated Covid patients

Bengaluru: When a techie named Shashanka tested positive for Covid, he immediately stooped his domestic help and cook from coming to work. However, he along with his two roommates could not eat from outside for long and craved healthy homemade food.

He saw a tweet by Meghana Srinivas, a Singapore-based entrepreneur, who talked about her mother who wanted to send food to four or 10 people.

Shashanka, 26, who moved to Bengaluru from Udupi two months ago said, “Food from restaurants is oily and does not feel good. I wanted to return home, but I was stuck here. I craved home-cooked food. That is when I found Meghana’s tweet talking about her mom’s food. I messaged her and she was nice enough to help me out.”

The food was a source of comfort for him and he said, “She even sent an apple. It was too cute. I realised that there is so much goodness in this world.”

Home isolated patients like Shashanka are being rescued by volunteer initiatives like Meghana’s mother. Messages about food delivery at doorsteps by several individuals and organisations are being circulated on social media.

Meghana said that they are already serving right home-isolated-infected people in several parts of Bengaluru. She said, “My mother loves feeding and nurturing people. When the second wave hit and many of my friends were falling sick, she wanted to do something to help.”

Her father, Srinivas Murthy, 60 helps her mother Subhashini Srinivas, 53, in packing the food.

Subhashini rings up each patient and personalised the menu. Meghana said, “Currently, it’s vegetarian South Indian food and includes egg. They want to do it for as long as patients like, and at least until they are fully recovered. Also, her egg dosas are famous and even non-Covid patients are texting me to ask if they can Dunzo some.”

Subhashini does not accept any payment in return. Meghana said, “We would also love to support any underprivileged families with food, especially if they have patients.”

Chai service

Mission Chai is another such volunteer initiative that is serving free food to people. Their contact numbers are also circulated on social media platforms.

Founder of Mission Chai, Rakesh Nayyar, said that his wife, Seema Nayyar gave him the idea of starting such a seva which they started three days ago. However, Mission Chai has been serving people since August 16, 2015 and serving 1,000 cups of tea everyday at Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology and Sanjay Gandhi Hospital.

Nayyar, who is an ISRO engineer said that they started a centralised kitchen last year during the lockdown and restarted it after seeing people panicking. He said, “We serve vegetarian food like phulkas, dal, salad and rice. On Saturday alone we served 20 people. There are families of five where everyone is Covid positive and not in a position to cook. Some single people have no one to cook for them. Our main target is senior citizens and Covid patients.”

He too refuses to take payment and instead asks the people to pay the food deed forward to someone else.