How Chennai Food Bank aligned with 22 NGOs and fed the rain-hit

A project by Rajasthan Youth Association Metro, Chennai Food Bank hurriedly raises a kitchen in a car park and sends out 60,000 food packets in six days. The highlight of the exercise is how the 28-year-old project used social media with impressive results

Disaster relief requires the presence of mind and inventiveness that define modern-day T20 batsmanship. When runs dry up, unlikely shots are pulled out of thin air. An unconventional batter may be sent out of turn, in the place of a top-order batsman. Quick thinking of this kind has turned hopeless situations into victory laps.

A November 7-12 feeding initiative by the Chennai Food Bank of Rajasthan Youth Association Metro in association with the Jain Annapurna Trust TN got this figured out. The food preparation and distribution initiative, flagged off by member of parliament MK Kanimozhi, was being operated from a massive but temporary kitchen that was hurriedly raised at the Jain temple on GN Chetty. At one point, it was hit by the situation whose fallout it was trying to address. With the waters rising on the temple premises, the chances of continuing the kitchen looked bleak. Instead of a tame ending, the initiative took a new turn, one that led it into a space a few streets away. Without any disruption, the kitchen was carted overnight into the residence of a Rajasthan Youth Association Metro member at Nana Street in T Nagar. The resultant situation was a rare fusion between the sizzle of frying pans and the roar of engines.