ACCEPTS, RECEIVES & SAVES CLOSE TO 600 KGS OF GOOD PACKAGED FOOD WHICH OTHERWISE WOULD HAVE REACHED THE GARBAGE DUMPS.

21.1.2023. 7pm.IST 
FOOD BANK FOR THE POOR SANGOLDA GOA , accepts,  receives & saves close to 600 kgs of good packaged food which otherwise would have reached the garbage dumps. 
These are samples of Atta , healthy fruit spread & amla drink which are in date and were to be sent back to the company which ultimately would have expired and thrown into the garbage dumps. 
The distributor was alert to call me & request me to use this for the poor and needy in our homes and to be Given ahead through our food banks. 
600 kgs of such good packaged food is too much for our shelter homes and we require only 100 kgs in Total all sent in sacks and boxes. 
Rest we started giving away to various Poor families who we have been supporting through our dry ration monthly program across Goa and through our volunteers who feed fresh food through our food bank fridges. 
The SAD part is daily in GOA , thousand KGS of such packaged food stuff is destroyed through FMCG distributors & wholesalers as that's the system prevailing last so many years. 
Can you imagine how good packaged food is just destroyed and thrown out when so many poor hungry people can benefit. 
The FSSAI / FDA is the implementing authority under SAVE FOOD , FEED FOOD campaign to see that packaged food just like fresh food is routed through food banks to feed the poor . 
But who cares and who is bothered ? 
This is the reason INDIA HUNGER INDEX is going from bad to worse and the garbage dumps are rising. 
And I am not sure how people FREAKING SLEEP at night especially those connected to the FMCG distribution when such packaged food is left to expire on the shelves of supermarkets and shops and then brought back after expiry and destroyed. 
If we as INDIANS need to drop our HUNGER INDEX , it has to start at the ground level and this one source is FMCG  distribution & wholesalers. 
We need to understand that a huge population of our country is poor, undernourished, struggling to meet to get two meals a day . 
I am just back from JHARKAND and I know what is hunger & poverty in real true meaning. 
Goa is way way ahead in nutrition. 
I can say GOA is the food capital of INDIA. 
Let's all pledge to be part of attempting to save food first in our homes and thinking and working towards feeding those hungry and undernourished. 
I thank Mr Prakash from Mapusa ( originally from Ratnagiri )  who last many years has been consistently sending our food bank many such different types of good food from the distribution business he does rather than throwing it out into the garbage  
And I can say with CONFIDENCE, Mr Prakash business in the last 4 years has doubled and he is very focused on seeing that food is not destroyed but given to the poor & hungry in Goa. 
Those in the FMCG business in Goa should take a leaf from Mr Prakash and attempt to avoid such good packaged food from reaching the garbage dumps. 
God bless you so much
Donald Fernandes 
8380097564 / 7020314848