A fistful of rice and dal may seem too little to make a difference in anybody’s life. But make it an everyday habit to spare the same for the needy and lo, at the end of the month it can keep a deprived kitchen running for days.
Manav Mitra Samiti, a voluntary organisation asks its members to donate one fistful of rice or dal per person in a family everyday. By the end of the week, the samiti volunteers visit the members’ houses to collect the rice or dal and later donate them to old age homes and orphanages in twin cities.
“Every month we donate about 400 kg of rice and 60 kg of red gram dal to over 30 orphanages and old age homes,” says Hiten Shah, a samiti member.
Under the Shri Kutchhi Mitra Mandal banner, the samiti has been conducting this novel service since 2004. “The objective is to help the needy in whatever way possible and food being the primary requirement of people, we launched this service,” says Mr. Shah.
But lot of effort goes into collecting the rice and dal. The samiti provides a small container to each member’s family. Everyday, each family member is supposed to drop a fistful of rice or dal in the container.
On Sunday, the samiti volunteers visit the houses, collect the rice or dal. Depending on the number of persons in a family, on an average each family donates about 3 kg of rice and 1 kg of dal per week, Mr. Shah explains.
As on date, over 300 members are registered with the organisation and there is no registration fee. People irrespective of caste and creed can become members and support the cause, says Pankaj H. Savla, who leads the samiti team.
Basically the idea is to inculcate the habit of helping the needy and donating for good causes among people, particularly youngsters, he adds.
