To educate, engage, inspire and encourage everyone to take action, Rise Against Hunger India observed October as our Hunger Action Month. Here is a brief summary of different activities undertaken by our team across the country:

Throughout the month, our teams in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi organized multiple volunteering events.  Many Volunteers came together to package meals in our warehouses.  In Mumbai, meal packaging was also done in a community location in Panvel. 

In Delhi, volunteers participated in a special session where meals were cooked and served to children in a colony in Okhla.

The meal packaging and meal distribution events had an educational aspect too.  Volunteers learned about the various forms of hunger including the concept of hidden hunger (deficiencies in minerals and micronutrients).  One of the unique feature of a Rise Against Hunger India meal is that it comes with a sachet that has a blend of 23 minerals and micronutrients. 

On the eve of World Food Day (October 16),  nearly 50 students and volunteers  participated in a Hunger Walk drawing attention of general public on the need to be food conscious and make healthy food choices.  Before the walk, volunteers prepared posters, pamphlets and banners on these themes.

In some tribal villages in Odisha, young children participated in a fun activity to draw their favourite fruits and vegetables which they shared and explained later with community groups in a festival.  Children also participated in cultural programs to celebrate the day.

Community level festivals were held in Bargarh and Koraput Districts of Odisha.  At the #seedsfestival on display was hundreds of varieties of traditional seeds and crops that were lost for decades but have been revived now with painstaking efforts.

Farmers were recognized and honored as #foodheroes during the festivals.  Farmer leaders, especially women farmers shared and explained the nutritional food items they had prepared from locally available items but are not in use in most households now.

Virtual sessions were conducted for multiple groups during the month.  This included #GatherforGood events with some corporate employees (group session on hunger and food awareness), Facebook Live session on Hunger Quiz and other such activities.

Some virtual volunteers also dedicated their time to produce creative artwork food & hygiene related messages.  These sessions helped promote awareness and activism about food choices, food consumption, food wastage and related aspects.

Hunger Action Month was quite eventful for us.  Hunger issues also became a hot topic in the media and other forums during the month after Global Hunger Index (GHI) report was published in the middle of October that showed India’s ranking going down in 2021. What came out of all the discussions on GHI is that global community achieving SDG2 hinges largely on India’s success in tacking it locally and for this, everyone, especially the youth need to be engaged and involved.