Ankit Kawatra founded Feeding India in 2014 to address two issues at once – hunger and food waste. Today, Feeding India has a network of over 2,000 volunteers in 28 cities in India rescuing and redistributing excess food to help feed people in need. The organization has served over one million meals to date and aims to reach 100 million by 2020.
Ankit was 22 when he decided to quit his corporate job to focus on tackling food waste and hunger in India. “It all started after I attended a large wedding in the capital of India. I was appalled at how much food was going to waste in a country where 194 million are undernourished,” a reality that spurred Ankit to launch Feeding India, the non-profit organization he founded in 2014. The idea was simple: to collect excess food from parties, events and weddings and re-distribute to people in need.
What began as five friends helping out has expanded into a network of over 2,000 volunteers trained through the Hunger Heroes program. Today, Feeding India operates in 28 cities across the country and has served over one million meals. Ankit and his all-youth team have no intention of stopping now: “Our mission has always been to reach zero hunger. We’re focused on a sustainable model that continues to expand and plan to reach 5,000 volunteers by 2017.”