Addressing food imbalance

Food for thought SBM and Glowtide join hands to to feed the needy by arrangement 

Rashida is both relieved and happy. The very thought that tonight her children can eat to their heart’s content lights up her face. As Rashida dons her burqa and sets out to the Safa centre nearby, she is joined by other women; they are all on a common mission — to collect food being supplied by the Safa Baitul Mal (SBM), an NGO.

Nearly 60 poor families in the Kishanbagh area get quality food, enough to feed the entire household. “I don’t know where the food comes from, but it is very nice,” says Kavita as she picks up a meal packet. She is among scores of poor households in this locality who have been receiving meals thrice a week, by turns, for close to a year.

Many marginalised families and orphanages in different parts of the city have been getting meals regularly for the last few years. Little do they know that they are partaking the same healthy food which employees in elite companies eat.

So who is the benefactor for these poor people? They are corporate offices and IT companies in the upscale Madhapur area. Everyday a variety of food gets leftover in these companies which is usually carted off to dustbins. That is where a few engineering students stepped in, to join hands and stop the wastage. These good Samaritans, who later formed GlowTide organisation, are taking the trouble to see that the leftover food reaches the poor and needy.

“We first started distributing food packets to homeless persons sleeping on the roadsides near KBR park, LV Prasad Eye Institute , Indo-American Cancer Hospital”, says Murtuza Hashmi of GlowTide.

"We repack the food and handover to the needy in time. It is our responsibility as a society and also as an individual to do our bit"

--Moulana Gayas Ahmed Rashadi,president of SBM

The trigger

The trigger for the social enterprise was an unpleasant scene his elder brother, Mustafa, saw in 2013 when he emerged from a fast food joint. An emaciated man was drinking water from a drain and when asked the reason, he said he had not eaten for last 14 days. “I felt so guilty at the plight of the man and decided to do something,” says Hashmi.

Next morning he discussed it with his close friends and convinced them about the need to help out the hungry to the best of their ability. They approached restaurants, wedding halls and later corporate offices with a request to handover their leftover food. Soon everyone agreed and after some initial hiccups they are now sourcing food from two IT companies, two caterers, a bakery and a school with four branches. “We are able to feed 650 persons as well as inmates of four orphanages and a madrasa. It feels great to serve the needy and uncared for,” says Hashmi.

To streamline its service, GlowTide has tied up with SBM which has good manpower. Whiel Glowtide collects food from the corporate offices, SBM supplies it to the needy in Kishanbagh area. “We repack the food and handover to the needy in time. It is our responsibility as a society and also as an individual to do our bit”, says Moulana Gayas Ahmed Rashadi, president of SBM.

Surfeit of food at one place and shortage at another - GlowTide and SBM are trying to address this imbalance in their own way. Taking where it is excess and giving where it is needed.


No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

J.S.Ifthekhar,

Hyderabad based journalist.

Article published in The Hindu

Dated February 26,2018