In a bid to tackle food wastage, food delivery major Swiggy has started a program to take surplus food from restaurants and distribute it among the underprivileged. Over the next few months, Swiggy aims to extend this initiative to 700 cities. Currently, the initiative is live in 33 cities with 160 restaurants.
"Swiggy is in a privileged position to handle the problem of food wastage because of our widespread presence all over India," said Rohit Kapoor, chief executive officer - Food MarketPlace at the initiative. Swiggy is lucky to have partnered with pretty much 100 percent of restaurants in India, and this extensive coverage will also help the company fight the problems of food wastage, believes Kapoor.
With that in mind, the company has launched Swiggy Serves in partnership with Robin Hood Army. Kapoor said that Swiggy Serves has been launched with the intent to not waste food and give it to a person who is hungry.
The Robin Hood Army is a zero-fund volunteer organisation whose aim is to take surplus food from restaurants and distribute it to the community. The intent of the partnership is to provide 50 million meals by 2030. Currently, over 2,000 meals have been redistributed through the initiative.
The food delivery platform is planning to extend its Swiggy Serves service to 700 cities with the aim of tackling the issue of food wastage in India. Currently, the food delivery platform is working as a medium to connect restaurants with the Robinhood Army.
"The food will be given from restaurants to the nonprofit organization. It will be a combination of both cancelled food orders and food that is wasted every day,” said Veer Anukul Chandhok, founder of Dana Choga (a restaurant partner who joined the initiative). Some of the brands that have joined the initiative include Bikkgane Biryani, Biryani by the Kilo, Dana Choga, Vardhas, Charcoal Eats - Biryani & Beyond, Dabba Garam, House of Biryani, B.Tech Momos Wala, Samosa Singh, Babai Tiffins, Dosa Anna, and Urban Tandoor.
A report by the United Nations titled the Food Waste Index report indicates that every year Indian households waste around 78.2 million tonnes of food. The report claims that after China, India is the second largest food waster. Ironically, this comes at a time when the country also ranks 105th out of 127 countries in the Global Hunger Index.
The report further indicated that worldwide, “Out of the total food wasted in 2022, 60% happened at the household level, with food services responsible for 28% and retail 12%."
