Press Release:
Our mission at Zomato is better food for more people. We consider the underserved and the underprivileged as part of our purview of more people.
Think about this – according to FAO estimates, over 190 million people in India are undernourished (which is approximately 20% of our population). And one-third of world’s stunted children are from India. In spite of this, it is estimated by the UN that nearly 40% of food in India is wasted or lost.
Food wastage in India happens at multiple levels – harvesting, transporting, processing, packaging and consuming. Weddings, events, restaurants, hostels and houses are a major source for food wastage of cooked food.
Someone has to do something significant to address this core issue of our country. And we think we can contribute to easing the pain. In the past, we’ve worked closely with Feeding India, Robin Hood Army and Akshaya Patra Foundation to alleviate some of these problems and have collectively achieved remarkable results. It’s something we are extremely proud of.
We have now begun a new, and a more concrete chapter around serving the underserved by acquiring Feeding India. It is an important step for us, as both organizations share a common dream of ending hunger and food wastage — not just in India, but globally.
The Feeding India team is now completely integrated into Zomato. We have been working together (out of the same office – our HQ) for about 6 months now – and the results have been tremendous.
Within these 6 months of working together, we’ve been able to unlock the massive potential that comes with our reach and scale. In December of 2018, Feeding India distributed 78,300 monthly meals to the underprivileged. That figure has now skyrocketed to over 1.1 million meals a month.
Similarly, the number of cities Feeding India is active in has risen from 65 to 82. The number of Hunger Heroes (volunteers at Feeding India) has grown from 8,500 to 21,500.
Zomato and Feeding India also closely collaborated during the Odisha cyclone crisis. It showed us how we can leverage public support to convert it to social good. In over 24 hours we were able to set up #techforgood, activate our users, partners and volunteers to get 75,000 meals along with necessities for daily survival for a month to 16,500+ people in Odisha.
This positive impact was made possible thanks to two main reasons: the unbridled enthusiasm shown by the Feeding India team led by Ankit and the reach and trust Zomato has with its users.
Feeding India is a not-for-profit organization. And we have acquired it. What does that mean?
That means that Feeding India will continue to be a non profit. Zomato will fund the entire salaries of the team – and some core initiatives. For example, Zomato will fund the development of the ‘Feedi.ng’ app – this app will connect donors and volunteers at a scale never seen before, and we are hoping that in a few years, it will be the platform to serve at least 100m underprivileged people every month. All the money with Feeding India will remain with Feeding India and be used for their mission “food for everyone” – which we think is a necessary part of our bigger mission “better food for more people.”
We are revamping the Feeding India website, and in the spirit of transparency, we will be publishing quarterly financials on the website. We are aiming to get the first Feeding Global – Financial Transparency Report, out by October 2019.
Food for everyone is not something we can solve alone. We need every food organisation to come together and tackle this important issue with our combined resources and knowhow. We are thankful to Accenture, Elanpro, Tupperware, Uber Eats, OYO, Sodexo, and everyone else for being generous partners in this ongoing mission.
Ankit and I also want to thank all our Hunger Heroes for helping us achieve such encouraging results within a relatively short period of time. And we are certain about keeping the momentum high – and in fact, even making it better.
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