Real-life Robin Hood: A group of professionals who deliver leftover food to the poor

Wasim Ahmed, founder of catering service Hungryyy , has to deal with leftover food on a daily basis. He usually distributes it to his employees or people nearby. But when a school cancelled an order for its event in the last minute, 300 food packets going waste was a tad overwhelming. “Thankfully, the Robin Hood Army was just a call away. Their volunteers picked up the food in no time and distributed it among slums and orphanages,“ Ahmed said. That was a year ago. Since then, the Robin Hood Army has always been on Ahmed's speed dial as he inadvertently ends up with close to 100 excess food packets every month.

The Army, a group of professionals between age 25 and 35, picks up excess food from restaurants, food startups and caterers across the city and distribute it to the needy. Pallavi Murali, 28, a corporate strategist at Cognizant and Sneha Tainwala, 28, an account manager at Xiaomi, drew inspiration from their friend who started the initiative in Delhi.

The city chapter started in October 2014 and spread through word of mouth. “We leveraged social media to the fullest since most youngsters are active there,“ said Tainwala.

Today , they coordinate with close to 10 restaurants and have 25 floating volunteers. They have slums identified in areas including Inner Ring Road, Old Airport Road, Cunningham Road, Kammanahalli, Whitefield, Ejipura, Mosque Road and MM Road, and are on the lookout for more.

Although the Army operates in 11 other cities in India and three in Pakistan, Bengaluru's modus operandi is slightly different.“Poverty here is not as visible as, say , in Mumbai or Delhi. It is not as if you look under any flyover and find homeless people,“ said Murali. “So we extend our reach to NGOs and orphanages, apart from slums.“ On an average, they feed up to 100 people every week.

Since all members are working professionals, they work in the weekends. “If we get calls on weekdays, we check if there's any volunteer nearby. Otherwise, we direct callers to the right places,“ said Tainwala.

Most restaurants, they said, also cook freshly-prepared food for them. Rahhams, for instance, gives them around five kg of biryani every Sunday and around 25 kg of biryani during Eid.

“We develop a connection with people when we visit them. After a point, more than the food, they look forward to the association,“ said Murali.

The RHA's website (robinhoodarmybangalore@gmail.com) has DIY kits for those who want to start their own group.