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1. Child rights
A hot meal every day and the means to stay in school — books, bag, stationery and the follow-up that makes sure the child is still in class next term.
Our story
It started with fafda and jalebi
Dussehra, 2023. Not with a strategy, a donor pitch or a registration certificate — those all came later, and reluctantly.
On Dussehra every household in Gujarat eats fafda and jalebi. It is the one thing nobody thinks twice about. A few of us thought about the children who would watch that day pass without any of it — the ones on the pavement outside the sweet shop, not inside it.
So we bought what we could afford, packed it up, and took it out on a scooter. We handed fafda and jalebi to the sweetest children we have ever met, and not one of them asked for a second plate. It started with one plate of food and a scooter.
We came back the next week with food instead of sweets, and word travelled the way it does — a neighbour told a friend, a teacher told a parent. Three years later we cook and serve 100+ hot meals every single day, and we have never missed a day.
Registration happened because donors needed receipts and schools needed a name on a letter. The 80G approval happened because our supporters deserved the deduction they were entitled to. None of it changed what we actually do on a Sunday.
Today we work across four fields. The food is still cooked and carried by volunteers who show up on their day off, and the trustee still does field duty.
1 → 1,00,500+from that first plate to where we are now
Meera Joshi