How this group has been helping the frontline workers - and how you can help them

Over the past two months, as the COVID-19 crisis worsened, there was a sudden surge in infections that led to chaos, aggravated by sudden scarcity of essential supplies. As lockdowns were imposed and most of us contained ourselves to the safety of our homes, there were many frontline workers who continued to go beyond the call of duty regardless of the high risk of exposure to the virus without access to clean food, sanitization or protection. It was at this time that two friends, Nandini Ghosh and Shray Gupta of Delhi came together to co-found The Good Food Project, an initiative focused on providing meals and other essentials to crematorium and cemetery workers across Delhi NCR.

Driven by a strong will to contribute to the community, Nandini and Shray pooled their own resources to procure clean homemade food for the workers of Nigambodh Ghat crematorium. On the first day itself they realized that wouldn’t be enough. “The helplessness over the condition of our crematorium/cemetery workers was overwhelming, ” says Shray, “we researched and found that no organization (or NGO) was working in this area. As a first step, we went on ground to the Nigambodh Ghat in Delhi with 100 packets of food to provide temporary relief, what we witnessed was beyond our imagination, so we decided to look for a scalable solution for all crematoriums.” And so, the two looked at crowdfunding. In just 48 hours they had raised INR 15 lacs; this they felt was enough to last a few weeks. For the past one month, The Good Food Project has been working non-stop with the support of over 50 on-ground and remote volunteers and have succeeded in distributing over 20,000 meals, 10,000 sanitization supplies, and 400 liters of sanitizers in more than 25 crematoriums and cemeteries across Delhi.

Catering to hundreds of people everyday and ensuring the food was clean, nutritious and good quality however was not possible without people cooking it. And that is where restaurants, chefs, individuals came in – from cooking tens of kilos of vegetables to arranging for hundreds of pooris, to procuring raw material, the volunteers did it all. “I was waiting for a way to help the crematorium workers and when The Good Food Project reached out to me I didn’t have to think twice, ” says chef Radhika Khandelwal, chef owner of Fig and Maple who, along with her partner Ravish Bhavnani, has cooked over 12000 meals in the past 3 weeks. “What we saw happening in the crematoriums was heart breaking and we wanted to help in whatever way we could.” Having the resources – a large kitchen, utensils, stoves—and the skills to cook in large quantities had Radhika cooking 200 meals everyday. “While the meals were basic, nutritious and there were occasional fun meals like aloo-puri and chole-kulche and gobhi Manchurian too.” While restaurants, chefs and individuals supported the project with food, sponsors like CIPLA, Mother Dairy, Amul, Kent and DCM Shriram Industries Limited sponsored beverages, vegetables, ghee, sanitizers and dispensers among other things.

With the death toll coming down and the caseload decreasing in Delhi, The Good Food Project is now in phase 2 and focusing marginalized communities who have lost livelihood to the pandemic. “It was a respite when we saw the death numbers coming down and crematoriums and qabristans telling us that they do not need additional food, ” informs Simi Nair, who has been associated with the project for 5 weeks now. “It is heartbreaking to see people struggling to cover their basic necessities: vegetables are reserved for a good day, and eggs and milk are a luxury, ” adds Nair. The focus in the next phase, adds the team, is to bring some respite to these vulnerable families and we hope more and more people will help us get there.

The fundraiser is still active and 100% of the fund directed towards the relief work. If you want to contribute or volunteer, you can reach out to The Good Food Project on Instagram