‘Meal of Joy’ for homeless children! The Burger Company India rolls out initiative during Covid-19 second wave

COVID-19 second wave: ‘Meal of Joy’ for homeless children! With the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the plight of those who have lost their loved ones and are grieving cannot be described in words. Much worse is the condition of homeless children who have neither a place to live nor food to live one. These are real life tragedies that are mostly left unattended unless initiatives are taken on the ground to tackle and address the same.

Notably, The Burger Company India has taken a notable initiative to feed homeless children free of cost and to reach out to as many children living on the streets as possible. In the first 7 days of this ‘MEALOFJOY’ initiative, the company has served over 5000 meals. In the coming days, their aim is to feed at least 1500 children a day.

Neelam Singh, founder of The Burger Company India, tells Financial Express Online, “During these trying times, almost everyone is impacted. While most of us are able to take care of us and our families there are homeless children who are dependent on us to feed them everyday. With most of us confined to our homes, these children are compelled to not have food for survival. Considering the same The Burger Company, India has taken an initiative to help and feed some of such kids for free. Currently we have 20+ running outlets across the country and in this initiative we are trying to help at least 50 children within 5km range of every outlet. Doing this, we are able to feed 800-1000 children everyday. The entire initiative is funded by the The Burger Company family, we are reaching out to people to just let us know if they spot such children who need to be fed.”

An initiative such as this naturally brings forward a logistical challenge. How does the team identify the children and what is their methodology for providing these free meals?

“Our team personally keeps on exploring the nearby areas to find such children. We are not going to any shelter home, we are feeding in homeless children who are there on roads. Our team also prioritises the details shared by people over our whatsapp or DMs on social media. Till now we haven’t felt the need for authentication for this but if needed we will be undertaking various measures to ensure the same. It feels really good to feed these homeless children. The joy we see in their eyes while they enjoy the food is exceptional and accordingly we have named the Initiative as #MealofJoy. We are serving Whole Wheat Sandwiches, Burgers and 100% milk based milkshakes,” Neelam Singh informs.

Terming the initiative a ‘Meal of Joy’, this initiative has already been rolled out in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Chandigarh, Udaipur, Meerut, Roorkee and Dehradun.

The company is also urging people to message them directly or tag them on social media with details of children living on the streets. With real time information, their teams can reach out to these children and serve them a ‘MEALOFJOY’ for free.