Feeding the poor at govt hospitals

Hyderabad: Scores of poor at government hospitals in the city do not have to go hungry any longer, thanks to the heart-warming initiative of Food Bank Hyderabad (FBH).

Food is distributed on Wednesday at Gandhi Hospital, Thursday at Niloufer Hospital and on Friday at the Government Maternity Hospital, Koti and on Saturday at NIMS Hospital.

The man behind FBH, Mohammed Aziz started distributing free food packets at Himayat Nagar in 2015. Annually three lakh people are benefitted.

"The idea of distributing food to the needy inspired me when I read an article regarding a food bank in Chennai on Google and I thought to start such drive in our city and stared this drive with four friends-Dileep, Iqbal, Abdul Salam, and Satya Pamidi by distributing 34 food packets to the needy," says Mohammed Aziz.

He further said:"At the beginning we were only five volunteers and I created a page on Facebook, slowly our work started getting noticed and people voluntarily joined our mission.Today, Food Bank Hyderabad has more than 100 + volunteers and 100 donors who donate food packet and also some people give us the grocery items and our volunteers cook food from it and distribute the food.

"Every Sunday we collect more than 800-1000 food packet forms from our donors. We are not interested in cash transactions or donations, the team only picks up packed home-cooked meals and distributes it among the poor and homeless.

He also said their aim is to feed underprivileged people. On Sunday,they select any two locations in Hyderabad and distribute to more than 200 underprivileged people.

"Many donors from across the country and abroad are supporting us in this drive-by sending various grocery items. During festivals, food packets are distributed to various NGOs and also to underprivileged people. Recently the volunteers have distributed watermelon to more than 300 underprivileged people," adds Aziz.