Trupthi Free Meals for the Unsupported Elderly in Mysuru City, Karnataka State

The Trupthi Meals project was started in March 2018 in Mysuru. The trust currently provides free food to elderly/senior unsupported persons, widows, and widowers, in the city who have either been abandoned or neglected by their own children and relatives. The food is delivered to their homes by their volunteers. At the beginning, they received 128 applications for free food. They formed 3 teams and visited each house collecting details about the elderly persons and their needs.

Initially, they made a modest beginning with 27 elderly people. Now the number has increased to 86 elderly people. The trust has identified a family to prepare home-cooked, hygienic, and nutritious meals to serve their purpose. They serve Ragi Mudde/Balls (finger millet preparation), rice, sambar, cooked vegetables, and curds for lunch, and Chapatis, Rava Dosa, Awalakki (beaten rice), wheat bisibele bath, Rava Pongal (Upma), Tondekai (toadcock) vegetable bath, and Chitranna (lemon rice) for dinner. Dinners are normally light. Special dishes are prepared on festive occasions. Food is also customized according to the requirements of people suffering from health issues like high blood pressure and diabetes.

The food is packed in aluminum foil pouches and delivered to all the recipients between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. (lunches) and between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. (dinners). They have provided them with a Honda scooter to deliver the food packets to everyone. The daily cost of serving food to 86 people ranges from Rs. 3,200 to Rs. 3,600 per day. The trust receives plenty of calls from neglected elderly people. Currently, nearly 50 deserving applications are pending due to financial and resource constraints.

They also have an ambitious plan to provide free medical check-ups and medicines to all the elderly people to whom they serve food. A few doctors in Mysuru have agreed to give honorary service. Their goal is to reach more people, bring smiles to their faces, and make their remaining lives enjoyable. Their main aim is to provide free food to elderly or senior unsupported persons, widows, and widowers in the city who have either been abandoned or neglected by their own children and relatives. The main expenditure incurred by them is on groceries and green vegetables.

Kindly support them by donating groceries at Donatekart. This would enable them to enroll more elderly people in Mysuru city.

About the NGO: Mr. Rajendra, the founder of the state of food waste in India, thought of all the food that goes unused during various events, parties, and functions like marriages. How this idea for food collection and distribution came to our founder, H. R. Rajendra, is an interesting tale. When Rajendra was returning home after attending a wedding six years ago, he saw huge quantities of surplus food being thrown away in dustbins in front of the function hall. At another place, he saw street urchins eating leftover food thrown in the garbage. Deeply hurt and moved by these two scenes, he decided to collect the surplus food, distribute it, and alleviate the hunger of the poor and needy. A couple, M.K. Shwetha and H.R. Rajendra, with the support of a multitude of well-wishers, supporters, and volunteers, were involved in the collection, processing, and re-distribution of extra and un-used food in Mysuru City, over the past 6 years.