Community giving during these unprecedented times have shown us that a lot can be achieved, lives are changed, and situations are better dealt with when people join hands together to make a difference. We highlight some of the various groups who have done this, in various forms.
McDonald’s India and Salaam Bombay Foundation
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges for people across all sections of society. But while some of us have been able to stay in the safety of our homes with adequate supply of essentials to keep us secure, others have been adversely impacted and are grappling with limited or no access to essential items, including food, for their families.
To reach out to this section of the society, McDonald’s India (West and South) partnered with Salaam Bombay Foundation. The brand, along with the NGO has initiated an outreach to distribute safe and hygienic food across various slums in Mumbai.
McDonald’s has already distributed over 1700 meals in close to 10 BMC wards, which Salaam Bombay has delivered through various NGOs across Mumbai. The brand is also ensuring that all social distancing and sanitation practices are being followed strictly while distributing these meals.
Salaam Bombay Foundation has been at the forefront of the community outreach during the pandemic. The non-profit organisation has been working closely with the BMC to ensure that food that is being donated is reaching people who need it the most. This has helped in ensuring that there is no duplication of donations and those in need are duly catered to.
McDonald’s restaurants in West and South India are operated by Westlife Development Ltd. (WDL), through its wholly owned subsidiary Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt. Ltd. (HRPL).
Mondelez India
Mondelez India, the makers and bakers of some of India’s favourite snacking brands – Cadbury Dairy Milk, Cadbury Bournvita, Oreo, etc., today announced an additional relief contribution of over 70 tons of products to support relief workers and the migrant population during times of COVID-19. The company in total has donated over 140 tons of Chocolates, Biscuits and Beverages to India Food Banking Network (IFBN) across 20 cities. Of this, India’s trusted MFD brand Cadbury Bournvita will be directed to hospitals. The company is also donating dry ration kits to support over 8600 families (approx. 43,000 beneficiaries) in communities around its factory locations in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Commenting on the relief efforts, Ophira Bhatia, Director – Corporate & Government Affairs, India, Mondelēz International, said, “We are proud that globally Mondelēz International has donated well over $20 million in cash and in-kind donations to advance COVID-19 pandemic relief efforts surpassing our $15 million global commitment! As a company that has had close to 75 years of commitment to India, we are providing our much-loved products – that are safe, easy to consume and tasty – to workers in the frontline who are striving to bring this pandemic under control. Our products are also being given widely to the needy as well as migrant workers traveling back to their homes. We also continue to support the communities around our manufacturing locations with dry rations to tide them over these difficult times. It is heartening to see every part of our business – our colleagues, our brands also pitch in to support COVID-19 relief efforts.”
The employees of the company have also donated 110,000 meals to the poor and needy through the Akshaya Patra Foundation, through employee giving. Our brands like Cadbury Dairy Milk continue to live their purpose by launching a limited-edition Cadbury Dairy Milk ‘Thank You’ bar, in recognition of the generous spirit of the country’s unsung heroes during these difficult times. The company has committed part proceeds from sale of these special chocolate bars towards health insurance policies of the daily wage earners, via a partnership with Nirmana, an NGO that works with the unorganised sector.
As part of this, here is the consolidated list of efforts undertaken by the company in India, till date:
Phase 1:
The company donated 1,00,00 masks, 45 sanitiser cans of 5 litters and 3,000 sanitiser bottles of 50 ml across hospitals and police stations in Mumbai to support the Maharashtra state government in this fight against COVID-19
To provide aid at local factory locations of Induri, Sri City, Baddi and Malanpur, the company distributed about 1,800 relief kits – consisting of critical masks and sanitisers and some snack products like Chocolates, Biscuits and Tang
Colleagues of Mondelez India collectively facilitated about 110,000 meals, through the Akshaya Patra Foundation
Launched Limited-Edition Cadbury Dairy Milk ‘Thank You’ Bar, to facilitate India’s spirit of generosity. The company also committed part proceeds from Limited-Edition ‘Thank You’ Bar sale towards health insurance policies of the daily wage earners, via a partnership with Nirmana, an NGO that works with the unorganised sector
Donated 650 kgs Bourvita biscuits and 350 kgs Bournvita to St. Jude India Child Care Centres to help children undergoing cancer treatment
Phase 2:
Contributes an additional 70 tons of Chocolates, Biscuits & Beverages to IFBN, making it a total of over 140 tons of products
The company is also helping over 8600 families/43,000 beneficiaries by contributing 2 weeks of dry ration kits to support families around its 4 factory locations
Coca-Cola and CARE India
With a focus towards supporting relief operations during the COVID-19 pandemic and making a difference, Coca-Cola has partnered with CARE India to provide immediate food security and other essentials to underprivileged and vulnerable groups. As a part of the initiative, Coca-Cola and CARE India will provide dry-ration kits with meticulously curated food items to meet specific nutritional needs of various marginalized groups such as migrant workers, daily wage earners and people living with HIV/AIDS across various parts of the country. The three-month long programme aims to benefit over 1.5 lakh people starting from the month of June. This initiative is a part of Coca-Cola’s commitment of INR 100 crores towards various COVID-19 relief programmes meant to benefit and positively impact over 10 lakh lives across the country.
The programme will be rolled out across Delhi & NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar and West Bengal to distribute dry ration amongst people with meagre resources and affected by food crises. The ration kits include many essentials including wheat flour, rice, pulse, cooking oil, spices, sugar, salt, soy chunks, poha, peanuts, protein powder, milk powder and soap bars. Due consideration has been given to meet nutritional requirements of women and girls, and especially vulnerable groups such as people living with HIV/AIDS to help them deal better with these challenging times. Coca- Cola and CARE India acknowledge that people in distress also need to be treated respectfully and are committed to following safe and respectful distribution practices.
Commenting on the initiative, Ishteyaque Amjad, Vice-President, Public Affairs, Communications & Sustainability, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia said, “We are privileged to collaborate ;ith our partner CARE India in providing food and essential item support to the most vulnerable communities. We hope that our joint efforts help assuage the state of the most vulnerable people of our society and that through our collective efforts as a country, we will be able to steer ourselves out of these testing times.”
Manoj Gopalakrishna, Chief Executive Officer, CARE India said, “The nationwide lockdown for fighting COVID-19 has disproportionately affected the poorest and marginalised population in our country. CARE has a rich legacy of being responsive to humanitarian crisis at scale in all parts of the world. We are responding to today’s emergencies and helping people prepare for tomorrows. We have responded to Tsunami, Odisha Super Cyclone, Uttarakhand Floods, Chennai floods and others. In these difficult times we need to ensure that they have access to high quality nutritious food to overcome the challenges posed by this pandemic and provide them with necessary support. With the support of Coca-Cola, we hope to make a difference to the vulnerable and marginalised and hope they overcome these unprecedented circumstances.”
Vedantu
Vedantu, a pioneer in LIVE online learning platform in India, is assisting the Ministry of Health (Govt of Karnataka) to impart COVID training and communication to doctors across the State.
To assist the Karnataka State Government & Doctors in the ongoing battle against COVID-19, Vedantu has volunteered to offer its WAVE platform. This initiative is helping the ministry to reach out to 250+ doctors across Karnataka and train them LIVE using Vedantu’s platform to improve their understanding on the following:
- How to diagnose a COVID-19 patient
- What precautions are to be taken while treating a COVID-19 patient
- Which are the nearest hospitals that are available for testing
- How to attend to numerous queries of individuals about COVID-19
- Daily preventive measures to be taken to prevent the COVID-19
This training is led by senior officials – Dr. Ravi Kumar, Senior Regional Director at Ministry of Health & FW, Govt of India and Dr Mahamood Shariff, Research officer, NVBDCP, Directorate of H&FW, Govt of Karnataka.
Speaking on the partnership, Dr PC Jaffer (IAS), Secretary to Govt (Expenditure), Finance Department, Karnataka Govt Secretariat, said, “In the current times, taking the risk of face to face training was out of question for us. It was imperative to find a solution that mirrors, but also has the same impact as the face to face training. Hence, we decided to choose Vedantu’s platform, given its rich and interactive platform capabilities, to train and converse online with our COVID warriors across the state. We are glad as our training sessions are happening smoothly now and we continue our fight against COVID.
“It is Vedantu’s great honour to support doctors who are in the front line of the fight against the pandemic. We are happy to extend our support to the Government of Karnataka through our W.A.V.E platform to deliver their training sessions to doctors LIVE and online, ” said Shivani Suri, Chief Marketing Officer, Vedantu.
Cornitos
The country is in the midst of a crisis, and in this current situation, the migrant workers in transit are facing severe financial and essential crunch. Cornitos, India’s No 1 Nachos brand, joins hands with India Food Forum for ‘Feed the migrant worker in transit’ campaign. The initiative in association with Zomato Feeding India aims to help India’s migrant workers in transit who do not have access to a reliable supply of meals in the absence of immediate employment opportunities.
Commenting on this association, Vikram Agarwal, Managing Director, Cornitos said, “In this current time when the entire world is going through tough times, migrant workers in transit are bearing the heat of the crisis. They are the ones who are starving due to a lack of basic requirements. With this campaign, we aim to support them by giving products from the brand. This initiative is part of our CSR strategy and we hope to bring smiles to the struggling families. It is our way of giving back to society especially to the ones in need in these difficult times.
‘Feed the Migrant Worker in Transit’ initiative aims to support one million needy families through this programme.
Mars Wrigley Foundation
Mars Wrigley Foundation has announced an India grant that will aid the daily wage workers, migrants, labourers and vulnerable population by providing them dry ration and essential kits. The INR 4 million grant will be supporting The Akshaya Patra Foundation and Smile Foundation, non-profit organisations that are working with vulnerable communities through the crisis.
The Akshaya Patra Foundation will receive INR 2.5 million for distribution of 3,000 ration kits in Gurgaon (Haryana), Bangalore (Karnataka) and Baddi (Himachal Pradesh). The grant will also donate INR 1.5 million to Smile Foundation for distributing 600 dry ration and essential item kits in Pune (Maharashtra). In all, the grant will support 3,600 families in these four locations. The funds disbursed will be used to procure essential relief materials such as food and hygiene items which will include masks, soaps, hand sanitizer and sanitary napkins by the organisations.
“We are committed to the communities where we live and work, especially during this unprecedented time, and are responding to the urgent needs resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Mars Wrigley Foundation is grateful for the relentless work of our partner organisations to assist during this crisis,” said Anne Vela-Wagner, Executive Director, Mars Wrigley Foundation.
“We are happy to partner with the Mars Wrigley Foundation in providing food relief to the severely impacted communities in the 3 states. We have been working with partners, volunteers and well-wishers towards distribution of cooked meals through our centralised kitchens to aid in the disaster relief work,” said Sundeep Talwar, Chief Marketing Officer from the Akshaya Patra Foundation.
“With the Mars Wrigley Foundation grant, Smile Foundation will be able to support 600 underprivileged and vulnerable families in this hour of need. With the help of our grassroot NGO partners, we have been involved in distribution of dry ration and essential kits to the underprivileged and vulnerable families and providing tele-counselling and tele-medicine consultation services,” said Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder and Executive Trustee from Smile Foundation.
Both organisations will be working in close collaboration with the local government agencies and representatives towards carrying out the relief distribution work.
Samsung India
Samsung India has contributed INR 2 Crore to the Uttar Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority to support the state’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to this, Samsung has also supported the local administration and community in Gautam Budh Nagar by providing hospitals with medical equipment required in the preventive drive against the pandemic. Samsung has provided 10,000 Preventive Masks and 6,000 Personal Preventive Equipment (PPE) kits to hospitals. PPE kits are an essential preventive healthcare utility and each kit includes: Surgeon Gown, Face Mask, Gloves, Preventive Eye wear, Hood Cap and Shoe Cover. The Company has also provided a large number of Infra-red Thermometers and Public Address systems as well as 300 Air Purifiers to help improve ambient air quality in medical facilities.
Samsung also supported the local administration and local police in Noida in providing food packets to local communities.
The UP Government will utilize these funds for COVID-19 related relief, containment and preventive measures to combat the pandemic in the State.
Samsung has earmarked INR 20 crore to support the Central government as well as State governments in their fight against the pandemic. It recently contributed INR 15 crore to the PM CARES Fund. Samsung employees from across India also raised a voluntarily contribution of INR 1 crore from their salaries for the PM CARES Fund.
Shri Siddharth Nath Singh, Cabinet Minister Investments, Exports and MSME, Government of Uttar Pradesh said: “Government of Uttar Pradesh is grateful to Samsung for their generous contribution of Rs 2 Crores to the UP State Disaster Management Authority during the COVID-19 crisis. Samsung is our valuable partner and together we are committed to building UP into a world class global electronic hub.”
“Corporates have an important role in supporting governments and community during crises such as the one we are facing right now. We worked closely with local authorities in Uttar Pradesh to do an in-depth need assessment to understand how Samsung can contribute meaningfully. We were also able to support local communities around our manufacturing unit in Noida. Our contribution to the Uttar Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority is a part of that commitment,” said Peter Rhee, Corporate Vice President, Samsung India.
Samsung, India’s most trusted brand, and the country’s biggest consumer electronics and smartphone maker has been a strong partner to Uttar Pradesh over the years, having set up its first manufacturing plant in the country in 1996, at Noida, Uttar Pradesh. This factory has grown over the last 24 years, and was transformed into the World’s Largest Mobile Factory in 2018.