A group of volunteers from Mumbai is collecting and sending home-cooked food and rations for flood victims Rintu Rathod’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing all day. She has taken over 300 calls, and has missed… she has no idea how many. Everyone calling wants to know how to donate food to flood victims in Kerala. The story starts in 2014. Moved by the plight of flood victims in Kashmir, she wondered what she could do. She knew disaster relief supplies tended to be dry goods. “How long can someone eat dry stuff?” she asks. “I’m Gujarati, so I thought of making theplas.” She shared the idea with friends, and her message went viral. She wound up with 35,000 donated theplas. Ms. Rathod coordinated with a friend’s NGO in Kashmir to receive the food. When her husband, who volunteered to arrange transport, went to Jet Airways, he got a pleasant surprise: “They did not charge a rupee!” Volunteers sort donations at a collection centre in Powai on Saturday. | Photo Credit: Prashant Waydande She decided to start a group that would do similar work whenever there was any national calamity; she called it the Food Army. It now has more than a thousand members, and has sent theplas to Nepal (over a lakh), Chennai, after the 2015 floods (30,000), and Gujarat (85,000). Jet has continued to support them with free freight, and IndiGo has also carried goods for them. Cuisine change Now, the group is rallying to send food to Kerala. This time it won’t be theplas, though. A friend who works with an NGO said that people in Kerala might not like the Gujarati preparation. Ms. Rathod racked her brains for something that would appeal to South Indian taste-buds, and came up with dry-roasted upma. “It can last for a month without a problem; we take it when we travel abroad. All you need to do is add water and heat.” On Saturday morning, she put the message out on the group’s Facebook page, adding a few other dry food items that the public could donate, and a list of members’ homes which are acting as collection centres. Since then, their phones have been ringing constantly too. The team is expecting so many contributions that Ms. Rathod knows the usual informal collection won’t do: she is hiring a truck to pick up the donated goods from various parts of the city. The food will be flown to Bangalore, picked up by an NGO called Youth4Seva, whose members will then take it to Kerala by road, and distribute it there. They will also prepare and serve the food wherever possible. Members of MUSE, an NGO, collect donations at Vrindavan Society in Thane. | Photo Credit: Vibhav Birwatkar For Ms. Rathod, this has meant putting aside her business for the moment. A graduate of the Baroda School of Art, she calls herself an artist-turned-baker, a sculptor of cake and chocolate. In 2011, she came up with the idea of Ganesh idols made of chocolate. The idols are immersed in milk, she explains, and the resultant chocolate milk is given to underprivileged kids. “We worship, we cause no harm to the environment, and the kids are happy.” She has been getting orders since last year, and interest is peaking now, with Ganesh Chaturthi around the corner, so the phone that she reserves for the baking business is ringing all the time too. But she isn’t taking very many of those calls. “That is okay,” she says. The dedicated Food Army phone is ringing again. “Kerala is more important.” The Food Army is accepting: Dry-roasted upma (1kg or ½kg packs in zip lock bags); rice: (1kg packs), tuvar dal (1kg packs); milk powder (½kg packs), sugar (1kg packs). Collection only on 19 and 20 August. For a list of collection centres in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, email myfoodarmy@gmail.com or see https://bit.ly/2vW2xC2<doc-sep>Kerala Floods: At least 164 people have died in the flood since August 8 The Telangana government has dispatched 100 metric tonnes of nutritious food for children in flood-hit Kerala. The food manufactured by Telangana Foods, a state government enterprise, was airlifted to Kerala on Saturday. According to officials, the food known as ''Balamrutham'' is worth Rs 52.5 lakh. The food was airlifted by two Defence aircraft (C17 Globemaster) from Begumpet Airport. The food is expected to provide supplementary nutrition to about 50,000 children for 10 days, said the officials. This assistance is in addition to Rs 25 crore aid announced by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday. The Chief Minister has directed officials to provide all necessary help to Kerala in the relief operations. Mr Rao has also appealed to industrialists and businessmen to come forward and donate generously for the flood-hit Kerala.<doc-sep>As Kerala battles, an unprecedented deluge, help and support are pouring in from all corners for the victims. The UK based Sikh Charity, Khalsa Aid, known for their humanitarian work for refugees across the world have joined the chorus of the global support for Kerala flood victims. Volunteers from the NGO have set up a langar, (community kitchen) in Kochi to provide food to the flood victims. They are working closely with Gurdwara Sri Guru singh Sabha in Kochi. Gurdwara Sahib members and Khalsa Aid volunteers are cooking and serving hot meals to those affected by the floods. Khalsa Aid have also opened an international fundraiser for the Kerala flood victims. You can also contribute directly to the Kerala Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund by clicking here.<doc-sep>
Kerala floods: Telangana govt dispatches 100 tonnes of food for children The food is expected to provide supplementary nutrition to about 50,000 children for 10 days, officials said. news News The Telangana government on Saturday dispatched 100 tonnes of nutritious food for children in flood-hit Kerala. The food manufactured by Telangana Foods, a state government enterprise, was airlifted to Kerala on Saturday. According to officials, the food known as 'Balamrutham' is worth Rs 52.5 lakh. The food was airlifted by two Defence aircraft (C17 Globemaster) from Begumpet Airport. The food is expected to provide supplementary nutrition to about 50,000 children for 10 days, officials said. This assistance is in addition to Rs 25 crore aid announced by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday. The Chief Minister has directed officials to provide all necessary help to Kerala in the relief operations. Rao has also appealed to industrialists and businessmen to come forward and donate generously for the flood-hit Kerala. Meanwhile Telangana IT KT Rama Rao, who is also the son of the stateâ€™s CM, said that he was donating his salary for one month to the flood-hit state. â€śBesides the Telangana state governmentâ€™s contribution of 25 cr to Kerala, I personally pledge my 1-month salary to flood relief. Will be sending the cheque to Chief Ministerâ€™s Relief Fund. Request my colleague legislators to also contribute as much as possible,â€ť KTR tweeted. The death toll due to rains and floods in Kerala has gone up to 368, as 33 more deaths were reported on Saturday even as around 58,000 people were rescued in different parts of the state, and red alert is now there in just three districts, down from 11. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, while giving the latest figures, told the media late on Saturday that the flood relief work is going on in full swing and things are slowly coming under control and more helicopters and personnel would be engaged in the rescue and relief operations on Sunday. The 33 deaths reported during the day took place in Ernakulam, Thrissur, Idukki, Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha districts. IANS inputs