Organisation Name: Annakshetra Foundation Trust
Contact Parson: Col Ravi Dhingra
Website: www.annakshetra.org
Country: India
Email Id: ravi.dhingra@cdcindia.org
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/annakshetra
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Annakshetra

Annakshetra collects leftover food from ceremonies/functions and makes it available to those in need through a network of volunteers. It is the first-of-its-kind platform in India, which has taken up an initiative towards ‘Zero Food Wastage’. Its motive is that highest priority should be given to reduce food wastage. In brief, Annakshetra believes in a people’s programme where each citizen is an ‘Anna Doot’ (messenger of food). The donors are mainly restaurant owners, caterers, marriage garden owners and individuals while the food is distributed to people at the bottom of pyramid (labourers, waste workers, etc.). However, the leftover food is only distributed once it has been authenticated and confirmed as “fit” for consumption.

Annakshetra receives information of surplus food on its helpline which is manned 24×7. After the information is received, a van is driven to the location to collect the food, which is then stored in freezers before being distributed. Till date, Annakshetra has fed more than 14 lakh people from the surplus food.

It has launched other similar projects in parallel such as ‘Tiffin Annakshetra’ and ‘The Sustenance Fridge’. For Tiffin Annakshetra, refrigerators have been placed in various school premises so that the leftover from tiffin boxes of schoolchildren can be stored at one place. Under the Sustenance Fridge project, refrigerators have been placed at important places of various localities (such as shopping complex and entrance gates of housing societies) so that whatever is left at home can be placed in these refrigerators. Food from these refrigerators are collected every day and distributed among needy people.

Organisation Name: District Administration Kozhikode
Contact Parson: Prasanth N IAS – District Collector
Website: kozhikode.nic.in/newkzk/index.html
Country: India
Email Id: dckzk.ker@nic.in
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/CollectorKKD/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/collectorkkd

Compassionate Kozhikode is about the culture of sharing — sharing for the betterment of people and places. A plethora of initiatives have been launched in the last 10 months by the Kozhikode district administration in partnership with civil society groups, government agencies and citizens who volunteer to create an authentic and inspirational destination for them to live and invite people to visit and be part of their lives and experiences.

Kozhikode, over the years, has captured the imagination of the public when it comes to its warmth, hospitality and compassion. An often highlighted example of ‘Kozhikodan’ characteristic is the typical stories of auto-drivers that we hear frequently. The drivers are known for their honesty and hospitality. They are often heard advising passengers to take a public bus because it’s one-tenth the price and the frequency is better. Kozhikode has also seen socially responsible youngsters in Palliative Care Units helping ailing patients.

Compassionate Kozhikode is, thus, a platform to celebrate the lives of such people and to bring together like-minded people who can create a holistic destination out of Kozhikode.

The platform’s organisational structure is a truly democratic set up. It has a self-managing team of heterogeneous personalities working together towards a compassionate goal. It starts on the premise of “No cash, kindness in kind only” which means that Compassionate Kozhikode doesn’t accept cash but acts as a facilitators and matchmaker between the givers and the needy.

Compassionate Kozhikode utilises Web and social media platforms to conceptualisse, design and deliver district administration projects through active dynamic communication with the civil society. Active conversations take place on its Facebook page, which is followed by over 1.6 lakh subscribers.

Special Mention

Organisation Name: Agni Foundation
Contact Parson: Vijayakumar.R
Website: www.act.edu.in
Country: India
Email Id: foundationagni@gmail.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/agnifoundationofficial/?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Agnifoundations

Last year’s floods in South India, which were a result of heavy rainfall during the annual  northeast monsoon in November–December, affected the Coromandel Coastal regions in the states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, and the Union Territory of Puducherry. The city of Chennai was particularly severely affected by these floods. More than 400 people were killed and over 18 lakh people were displaced due to these floods. With estimates of damages and losses ranging from over Rs. 20,000 crore to Rs. 1,00,000 crore, the floods have been billed as the worst disaster in the world to have occurred in 2015, and is among the costliest natural disasters of the past decade, according to disaster management reports.

In an effort to provide basic needs such as food, water and clothing and serve the distressed, dozens of NGOs stepped forward. One such organisation was the Agni Foundation. Founded by Agnishwar Jayaprakash in 2014, this group of 25 core members and 1,500 volunteers submerged in the rescue and relief operations in Chennai.

The power of the social media was tapped and a strong campaign on close to 100 social media platforms was started. The two-month campaign resulted in relief material worth Rs. 818 lakh being distributed across 67 locations in Chennai. Apart from 28 corporates, more than 1,000 individual donors from across the globe contributed the relief materials. Today, even more corporates are joining hands with it in its rehabilitation efforts.