Our Values
Being responsible and mindful of the well-being of people in our society.
Annam Brahma was a tribute to the late Dr Saheb, who strongly believed in changing people’s lives with Yoga and inducing the knowledge of healthy eating in daily life. Keeping this in mind, ‘The Yoga Institute’ took up a mission of quenching the hunger of every needy person in their vicinity with Satvik Food.
Annam Brahma started on 10th June 2018 at the ‘The Yoga Institute’ where they started serving morning meals to people around their vicinity in Santacruz, Mumbai. People were sceptical to accept the meals, as getting a free meal was beyond their thought. Nonetheless, our willingness to serve people and the determination in opening the minds of people towards Satvik food, eventually made them curious to approach us.
People from all walks of life are conditioned to believe that food is meant to fill our stomachs, to quench our hunger. However, not many give adequate thought in choosing what kind of food they are consuming. Anna Brahma’s biggest challenge was breaking through this chain of thoughts and accepting the challenge of improving the standards followed by our society.
Our mission is to practice mindfulness and heal the society from the mental and physical issues that are facesed in current times. Mumbai being the financial capital has a huge number of Malnutrition people. Annam Brahma decided to start this initiative from the home ground and spread it across the country.
In the recent covid-19 pandemic many people with hand-to-mouth wages lost their jobs which made it worse for their survival. This adversity increased the number of people who needed our help to pull through the emotional and physical stress.
In these critical movements, Annam Brahma took the task and geared up to focus on spreading kindness and compassion toward these people.
Sadly, adult Mal nutrition is largely underrated and often goes unaccounted for. Although, after the pandemic, this is a growing epidemic in our society which needed urgent attention.
We also observed that not having access to basic food increases the risk of people being hospitalized and further losing their chances of receiving any kind of help. Surrounding these problems urged us in starting a community-based nutrition program and providing Satvik food.
Food plays a major role in our lives. It contributes to our nutritional needs, along with connecting people and influencing how we interact with others. Our society has a huge division through caste, creed, economic status and geography, nonetheless, among this huge population of 8 billion people, food has always been a bridge in minimizing this gap.
Our initial days of serving the needy were an eye-opener in realizing how this gap affects the choices that people make regarding their well-being. This strengthens our vigor towards driving this undertaking and ensuring to derive happiness from it.
In the pandemic, Annam Brahma had to stop serving people due to the introduction of section 144. Many frontline workers were impacted and had to work hours without basic food needs which increased their potential health risk. Ignoring this plight of those you were striving to people us safe, urged us on extending our support towards backing up these people. We could not keep a blind eye to the growing problems and wanted to support them in some way.
According to the International Labor Organization, at least one million poor population in Mumbai are starving or struggling with food security and are dependent on help in this pandemic which is extremely aching. Annam Brahma approached the local police and the BMC in chalking out a plan in helping us reach the needy and continue our noble cause of serving food. This got the ball rolling and opened many avenues in approaching and serving the frontline workers alongside those struggling for basic meals.
Annam Brahma on wheels was introduced with the goal that if people couldn't reach us, we will reach out to them and offer our help.
Serving the
non-privileged sector and enlightening them toward sustainability.
Eradicating
mal-nutrition and poverty.
The world is in a constant fight in eradicating food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition at a global and regional level. Many international organizations like the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, UNICEF, the World Food Programmed and the World Health Organization have pointed out how challenging it has been in addressing the food scarcity since the pandemic started.
Business shut which led to many losing their jobs, which meant their cost of living increased and affording a wholesome meal got difficult. These uncertainties made society vulnerable and in a state of lack. If this continues, we will never reach our goal to get zero hungry people.
Annam Brahma was a witness to the changing state of the people in Mumbai. The team decided to take every small step to be a catalyst for this change. Nevertheless, the ethos was not forgotten. The pledge of giving Satvik and nutritious food was followed.
Sponsors pitched in and supported us by donating a truck that would help us transport the food across the city. Team Annam Brahma refurbished the truck and customized it to fit in amenities that could help in serving hot and clean food.
Mumbai police, BMC staff, doctors and nurses in hospitals and covid centres were supplied with food every day twice a day.
Along with this, we realized we had to foster behavioural transformation in them and channel their overall ideology in choosing a food system, which would educate them on holistic living and opting for foods that could sustain them.
Annam Brahma as a future venture could also invest in finding solutions to cost-escalating factors in the production, storage, transport, distribution and marketing of food, including reducing inefficiencies, and food loss and waste. We would also work towards supporting the local small-scale producers to grow and sell more nutritious foods, and secure their access to markets.
Currently, Annam Brahma is feeding people from the Yoga Institute and also supplying food as their CSR venture to municipal hospitals, catering to patients and staff. Yet, there are some slum pockets around these hospitals where children need food. We follow a strict zero wastage pledge and the remaining food is always given away to the needy public. Our volunteers have been instructed to be vigilant in finding such pockets and reach out to the maximum number of people who need daily food.
In addition, the team ensure the cutlery utilized to serve food are recyclable items that satisfy the sustainability clause and also ensures to direct people to use the trash can for disposing without littering the roads and causing other environmental hazards. Annam Brahma endorses creating awareness towards all forms of sustainability and saving the environment against any form of abuse.
It's time we accept that wasting food is also wasting the effort of the labour put in making it, the money invested, including the water, seed and entire process of producing the food. Not to forget, the transport and fuel costs. In short, to stop experiencing increased greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, it is crucial to stop wasting food. Every wastage contributes to so many going hungry every day, dissolving the purpose of decreasing the margin.
Our choice today can help all those needy and also make the world a better person to thrive in. Wasting less food, eating a healthy Satvik diet and adopting a sustainable lifestyle is the right path key to building a hunger-free world.
Zero wastage of food.
