Ever heard of a bank which provides free food for 24 hours without charging any interest? This bank in Goa -- the FOOD BANK -- provides free food for people on the streets.

This ‘bank’ is a group of volunteers from Sangolda, Goa, that provides free cooked food to the needy. Under this food bank there are locations where they have installed fridges. One of the locations is Sangolda near Mahindra showroom where the fridge is installed and cooked food is available 24x7 for the people on streets. Any person on the streets and left abandoned can avail of this food and also drink filtered water for 24 hours.

More than 10 tonnes of cooked food gets wasted per day in Goa, says a study. While buying food and wasting it has become a habit with the well to do, on the other hand are people who are starving and dying of hunger.

This group of volunteers is not only helping to reach out to the people in need but also makes sure that it reaches to genuinely needy people. A Social entrepreneur Donald Fernandes from Sangolda started this service on May 28, 2017 and is presently having 25 volunteers who are helping him in this good cause.

This group collects around 500 kg of cooked food everyday from different hotels, restaurants, cafes and distributes it to orphanages, old age homes, churches, differently abled schools and many other institutions. 

Donald says the idea is to collect extra food from different restaurants, hotels and small entities and bring it to food bank. “We warm the food in the evening, pack it up and distribute it to different locations where required. Sometimes we don’t even collect the food. We directly let the food move from one place to other”.

They also have a full-fledged kitchen where they warm the food with proper licence from the Goa Government. This group covers areas in Calangute, Mapusa, Porvorim, Panjim in North Goa and distribute the food within 24 to 48 hours after collection. 

Sometimes people take food in bulk, says Fernandes, and distribute it to places where required. Most of the time, people contact him directly informing that excess food is left and they can collect it.

Along with food bank, this group of volunteers also collects clothes, toys, electronics, furniture, musical instruments and the like which they later donate to the needy people from orphanages, old age homes and differently abled schools.

This group also has another service under name of STREET PROVIDENCE. Under this, they pick up persons abandoned on the streets with no one to look after them.  They also give shelter to the sick and differently abled since no one is ready to touch them. The volunteers bathe them and provide them a house to stay in. Located at Porvorim, they teach them skills in candle making, stitching, computer repairing and more so that they can become self employed after they regain their health. 

This group also has an ambulance which provides service to sick patients and people in need. This group will be starting a new project called ‘Medicine Bank’ on January 15, 2018 under which medicines will be provided to the people on streets. There will be roadside clinics and medicines will be provided, Fernandes explains.

Under this project, the volunteers have now started to collect medicines from houses. “When any sick person in a house dies, people throw the extra unused medicines in the bins. Under this activity we will collect medicines from such people and provide them to people on streets,” says Donald.

“DON’T WASTE FOOD” is the message to all Goans from Donald Fernandes.