Chef Vikas Khanna coordinated an aid network to provide food to migrants in desperate conditions due to the quarantine in India. A story of solidarity.
Vikas Khanna, born in India, moved to New York twenty years ago with the dream of becoming a chef, starting out as a dishwasher and delivery boy. He is now a celebrated chef who has cooked for the Obama family, hosted several television shows alongside Gordon Ramsay, written 25 books and created lavish dinners costing $40,000 each. He was head chef at Junoon, has been praised for his creative approach to traditional Indian cuisine, and has held a Michelin star for seven consecutive years.
When the effects of India's quarantine began to be felt, Khanna realised he had to do something for the millions of people left without work and without food. He wanted to show that "solidarity still exists", so in early April he posted an appeal on social media asking for information about those most in need; hundreds of responses came in.
India's coronavirus lockdown began on 25 March. Within hours, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers left jobless flooded out of the cities to reach their home villages. With the closure of vast numbers of businesses across the country, a great many people — many of whom had been living and eating at their place of work — found themselves without food or shelter. Due to the suspension of transport, these people were forced to walk hundreds of kilometres. Dozens died during these journeys, not from Covid-19 but from hunger.
My mother lives alone in Amritsar and I thought: what if she needed help and there was no one there for her?
Vikas Khanna
Inspired by the langar — the large community kitchens of the Gurdwara, Sikh places of worship — and supported by food donations from various companies across India, Khanna set up 58 food distribution points located near petrol stations in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, in northern and eastern India respectively, to offer hot meals to migrant workers on the move. The day before Eid, the day that celebrates the end of Ramadan, the chef's team donated "festive kits" containing rice, lentils, flour, fruit, vegetables, tea, coffee, spices, sugar, pasta, oil and dried fruit to more than 200,000 people in Mumbai.
Khanna's initiative #FeedIndia reached a new milestone. After distributing seven million meals in May, in June it managed to distribute 17 million. The initiative took place across 125 cities with the help of the National Disaster Relief Force, an official body responsible for disaster response, and thanks to the support of various organisations on the ground. The aid is not directed solely at migrant workers, but also at the transgender community, leprosy patients, care home residents and orphanages. Khanna has written of his aim to distribute two million meals in a single day to the transgender community, people with disabilities, sex workers and patients living with Aids and HIV.
He also tweeted that he had a "wonderful surprise" for an eleven-year-old boy who, during the lockdown, had cycled for nine days from Varanasi to the village of Araria, covering more than 600 kilometres, pulling a cart to carry his parents (his mother is blind and his father had a broken leg).
After seeing an image of a little girl walking barefoot on scorching tarmac, Khanna launched a fundraiser to donate sandals to those in need.
Finally, when Indian Railways began operating trains to take Shramik (workers) back to their villages — a measure taken following a Supreme Court ruling ordering the go
