Country Projects: India

Overview

By every measure, India is one of the hungriest countries in the world. There are an estimated 212 million undernourished people — far more than in any other country. Even more serious is the level of malnutrition among children. An estimated 30 percent of the nation’s babies are born with low birth weight, ranking the country nearly last in the world in that measure of public health (168 out of 171). Many low birth weight babies die of causes directly related to malnutrition, or if they survive they never catch up — nearly 50 percent of India’s children under 5 are undernourished.

Malnutrition is blamed for more than one million deaths in India each year and a cost of up to 3 percent of the country’s annual gross domestic product (GDP).

Foodbanking as a national system does not yet exist in India. There are many existing hunger relief programs in India that form a foundation for food bank development including the Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDM) – a free school lunch program for children, and the fistful-of-rice concept at the Chennai Food Bank, in addition to thousands of other feeding programs working each day to find food and serve their neighbors.

Food banking is not intended to replace or compete with existing hunger relief efforts. A national system of food banks will provide feeding programs and charitable agencies a reliable source of food and an integrated, highly efficient approach to food distribution. A food bank system can provide the experience, scale, and infrastructure needed to source larger donations from national or global growers, manufacturers, and retail businesses.

GFN’s Involvement

GFN began working in India in early 2008. Thanks to generous support from the John and Editha Kapoor Charitable Foundation, GFN completed a comprehensive feasibility study that determined food banking is a viable model for addressing the nation’s food security. As a result of the feasibility study, GFN developed an extensive, multi-phased business plan for establishing a national food banking system.

The India FoodBanking Network Planning Forum was officially launched earlier this year to guide the next phase of food bank development. Dr. Sam Pitroda, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of India for Technology Infrastructure and Innovation, and a member of the GFN Board, is Chairman of the Planning Forum. The Planning Forum brings together more than 40 stakeholders representing government, business, NGOs, faith-based organizations, and civil society, and is responsible for formally establishing the national food bank network, with the goal of formal incorporation by December 2010.

Prior to the launch of the Forum, GFN provided scholarships to representatives from the Chennai Food Bank to attend the H-E-B / GFN Food Bank Leadership in 2009. In 2010, GFN also provided a scholarship to the Institute for the Managing Director of Aidmatrix India, who is also a member of the Forum and a key player in the creation of the India FoodBanking Network.

Project partners

GFN is utilizing global partnerships with international companies such as Cargill, Walmart, Kraft, Kelloggs, and many others to generate support for the India FoodBanking Network. In addition, GFN is providing the leadership and expertise to bring together key stakeholders within India to move the project from concept to reality.

The Aidmatrix Foundation, Inc., headquartered in Dallas, Texas, USA with offices in Germany and India, provides supply chain management technologies for nonprofit organizations and governments to get the right aid to people when and where they need it. Kuldip Nar, Managing Director of Aidmatrix India is a key leader in the work of the India FoodBanking Network Planning Forum.

GFN is establishing a partnership with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to convert existing food distribution warehouses into food banks. CRS has been operating a USAID food distribution program in India for more than 50 years. This USAID program is coming to an end, and the emerging food bank system in India provides a timely opportunity for CRS. GFN and CRS are working on a pilot effort to transition the first warehouses.