Bengaluru: A new movement to end hunger named Mother’s Meal was inaugurated at Delhi by former Supreme Court Justice Kurian Joseph along with Shri K J Alphonse, Member of Parliament and Former Cabinet Minister by providing Survival Kits to 25 families in distress. The movement is based on a new concept of Family to Family support, which was done simultaneously today across 55 locations in all 28 States and 8 UTs of the country by helping 1000 plus families.

The objective of Mother’s Meal is that no one should die of hunger. Mother’s Meal is a movement started by a group of passionate social entrepreneurs under the leadership of Claretian Priest Fr Dr. George Kannanthanam, a social activist based in Bangalore. It is the eighth social innovative idea by him under the Hope Anti Addiction Action Group Society initiated in the past 30 years. Thirteen Founder Members from various walks of life across the world belonging to various religious affiliations came together to find a workable solution to the extreme hunger that many are pushed into due to COVID. Already more than two thousand people were supported under the Coronacare Bangalore, initiated by Fr George after the outbreak of COVID.

Justice Kurian Joseph is the Patron of the movement. Fr George Kannanthanam was inspired by his late mother Brigit to start this movement, with the thought that no mother would allow her children to go hungry and we can all be a little motherly by helping another family to survive this troubled COVID times.

According to OXFAM and the World Food Program, as many as 12,000 people might die every day due to COVID induced hunger globally, more than the number of people who will die due to the COVID disease itself. The target of Mother’s Meal movement is to provide support for a million people over a period of time. The strategy of Mother’s Meal is to create a Family to Family Support bond between 50 % of the world’s families that can afford to support the 10% of people in extreme poverty. Each donor family will provide for a Survival Kit worth 500 rupees of food and provisions to a family in distress, for a sustained period of a minimum of six months.

The most vulnerable sections were selected as the beneficiary families of the Mothers Meal program. These are families of people with disabilities, terminal illness, widows, refugees, and tribals, the sections that are pushed further into poverty and hunger due to the financial crises arising out of the COVID pandemic and its aftermath. While Mukthi in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh provided Kits to beggars in the railway station, the National Federation of the Blind gave support to 25 visually challenged persons in Tamil Nadu. Dehra Dun based Waste Warriors organization extended help to the waste workers. CDI in Mumbai supported sex workers and HIV infected families.

The Mother’s Meal program was implemented through 55 grass root agencies, working closely with the affected families. Some of them are established NGOs like SAATH in Ahmadabad or AIFO in Bengaluru. Many of them are groups of individuals coming together for a cause like the DMC in Delhi. Some of them are social groups like the Rotary club in Bengaluru, Lions club in Darjeeling. Thus the program solves the problem of end-user connectivity effectively.

Many Christian religious groups of religious and laypeople are also actively participating in the Mother’s Meal program in various States. Ambikapur in Chattisgarh has the Social Service Society as a partner with Mother’s Meal. Networks like the Catholic Health Association of India work through their network partners like OCHA in Bhuvaneswar, Odissa. In North East, FAsCE India, an initiative of the MSFS Fathers and NanJan of the Claretians are coordinating Mother’s Meal program in all eight States, mostly among the tribal communities. While Jesus Youth is involved in the distribution the Survival Kits in Tamil Nadu, Vincent De Paul society members are the Providers in Wayanad in Kerala and Bangalore. Various women’s religious Congregations have partnered with Mother’s Meal to ensure that the most vulnerable sections are supported to survive through the COVID times.

Anyone can become part of this movement, by adopting a family or referring a family in extreme poverty in our website www.mothersmeal.life. For Details contact Fr George Kannanthanam – 9845811515 / 7063396563 or Sibu George – 9448071973