Noida’s apartment complexes ‘Roti Bank’ to help feed the poor

Apartment complexes in Noida are coming up with a unique way to feed the underprivileged and homeless during the lockdown. The homeowners in the apartment complexes in Noida started a unique ‘Roti Bank’ with each family contributing a few rotis every day. The noble effort had a humble beginning with a few families contributing but in a few days many joined in and the team crossed 1 lakh rotis in just 11 days.

The team now feeds around 3,000-4,000 labourers in a day. This is done in collaboration with the Noida Authority who provides them the vehicle for roti collection.

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Residents from the respective societies drop a packet of four rotis in empty boxes starting from 4:00 pm. The society members then collect all the boxes filled with rotis and then put in front of their society gates which is then collected by a Noida authority vehicles. They then take the rotis to a community kitchen at Sorkha Village where more than 1,000 labourers, migrant workers, daily wage earners, etc. gather for food. The community kitchen with their already prepared sabjis and dals severe the rotis to the people.

Two people from the state of Assam is also a part of this unique initiative. Pranab Jyoti Patar (Chief Executive officer of Delhi Global Foundation for Advancement of Environment) from Morigaon and Bani Bora (Manager of Centre for Social Change NGO) from Nagaon. Apart from contributing to the “Roti Bank,” they are also working with seven underprivileged families for making masks. They made over a 1000 masks which were then sold to various organisations and NGOs at a lower cost, thereby providing a source of income for the families.

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Starting with just 400 rotis from three societies the movement using social media to their advantage. The members reached out to families and other housing societies via WhatsApp groups and networking sites to make at least two spare rotis daily. This movement now engages more than 45 societies and is now collecting more than 45,000 rotis daily.