Helping the needy, one meal at a time

For nine years, Anil Kumar, an employee at the District Court at Vanchiyoor, has been providing free meals to patients and their caregivers at the Government Women and Children’s Hospital, Thycaud.

A little effort and a big heart could go a long way towards making lives better for the diseased and underprivileged, T.S. Anil Kumar, a resident of Kudavoor, Anayara, has shown.

For the past nine years, Mr. Anil Kumar, an employee at the District Court at Vanchiyoor, has been providing free meals to patients and their caregivers at the Government Women and Children’s Hospital, Thycaud.

He also distributes second-hand clothes, collected from houses and offices in the city, to indigent patients and caregivers. It was an aged woman he met at the hospital years ago, who was begging out of hunger, that motivated him to take up this cause, Mr. Anil Kumar says.

Breakfast is provided on Sundays and public holidays, and lunches on every second Saturday. While the breakfast comprises ‘Santhwanam’ food packets from the Special Jail at Kunjalumoodu, the lunch is sourced from the Narayana Memorial Catering Unit at Naruvamoodu. He sources breakfast packets from the Women’s Jail at Attakulangara when the special jail is unable to provide them.

Around 250 people benefit from the service on an average. Mr. Anil Kumar also collects leftover food from parties and functions, and distributes it to nearby colonies and slum areas.

The distribution is funded by money raised from citizens, under whose names the food packets are billed. Further, Mr. Anil Kumar is planning to provide three meals on a daily basis, a programme that around 100 persons have volunteered to fund.

Mr. Anil Kumar can be contacted at 9495917830 or www.facebook.com

/parasahayam .