Swiggy launches the 'Hope, Not Hunger' initiative to feed the needy

India's largest food delivery platform Swiggy said on Thursday it has partnered with various commercial kitchens, NGOs and state governments to provide daily meals to thousands of underprivileged, daily wagers and stranded migrant labourers who have limited access to nutritious food during the 21-day lockdown.

The 'Hope, Not Hunger' initiative was launched last week to support the Delhi Government's programme to feed the needy.

Swiggy helped organise the preparation and distribution of nutritious meals twice a day across relief camps in Delhi with the support of partners such as Compass Kitchens, Lite Bite Foods and SmartQ.

The relief effort was quickly scaled to Mumbai with the help of NGOs Pratham, HelpAge India and Yuva, and Elior India acting as the food supply partner.

Since then, Swiggy has taken this initiative to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Gurugram, Chennai and Kolkata, supplying over 75,000 meals daily.

Having served over 2.5 lakh meals so far, Swiggy is in the process of crowdsourcing funds from corporates and individuals in order to scale the initiative to other parts of the country.

"The goal is to serve five lakh meals daily," it said in a statement. "Each meal served for lunch and dinner includes adequate portions of rice, dal and vegetables to ensure the nutritional needs of the individual are met.