Enjoyed your lunch? Now here’s a chance to share that joy with someone less fortunate.
Every day, 200 thousand children on Mumbai’s streets are hungry and every day 2 of them die of hunger. The Mumbai Dabbawala’s deliver 120 tons of food everyday out of which 16 tons is left uneaten. This is where the initiative kicks in.
The ‘Share My Dabba‘ initiative aims to get food left over in dabbas to hungry street children, using just a tiny Share sticker and the extensive dabbawala network. The initiative is a joint effort between Happy Life Welfare Society and The Dabbawala Foundation.
All you have to do is mark your dabba with a ‘share’ sticker if there is food left in it. The dabbawalas would separate the ones marked with the sticker and leave it with volunteers while on their way back. The food is then shared with the hungry kids via the volunteers. Here’s a video on how it works:
Abhinav Tripathi, who uploaded the video explained that the red ‘Share sticker’ gives a system that can work within the dabbawala’s existing system.
The Share sticker dabbas are simply kept aside while the dabbawala’s sort the ones without stickers. In that window, volunteers give the food to children and repack the dabbas. Now the dabbawalas can sort these dabbas.
Mumbai’s 5,000-odd dabbawalas have been in action for over 125 years now, without any work stoppages. They deliver nearly 2,00,000 lunches everyday and on time. Their unique management and operational models have become subjects of management study beyond text books for global business schools. The dabbawalas have a Six Sigma quality certificate and a global business fan club that includes Prince Charles and Mr Richard Branson.
This innovative ‘Share’ sticker can make a huge difference to a hungry child besides adding some positive branding for the Dabbawalas. You can follow their new Facebook page ShareMyDabba, which has gathered nearly 5k likes just after launching the page 2 days ago.
Really an amazing initiative worth sharing about. So do spread the word by sharing this article with your friends!
