#LOCKDOWN HEROES

These friends ensure the poor don’t go hungry

Priya.Menon@timesgroup.com 30.04.2020

When the national lockdown was announced, Isaac Silvin Dass and his friends decided they had to do their bit to help society. So, 10 of them got together and pooled in their resources so that they could lend a helping hand to the needy. Every day since April 1, they have been out on the roads, serving breakfast and lunch to the poor in their locality.

“We all stay in the same area and have been friends for the past eight years. And all of us have always felt the need to give back to society,” says Dass, 24, who lives in east Tambaram and works with an IT company. “ When the lockdown began, we felt we should do something to help. We can work from home and still get paid by our companies but there are many out there who have no source of income.”

Since one of their friend’s  parents run a hotel, the group of 10 pooled in money to buy breakfast and lunch from them. “Every morning, from 7am to 9am, five of us go around Tambaram, Sanatorium, Chromepet, Sembakkam, Hasthinapuram, and Rajakilpakkam to give food to the homeless. It’s usually four idlis and a vada with chutney and sambar, pooris or pongal,” says Dass, adding that they feed about 60 people every day.

In the afternoon, the other five head out. “We serve variety rice – lemon, curd, tomato, and sambar rice with pickle,” says Mohammed Rizwan, 25. “For lunch, we feed about 80 people.”

Apart from it, the group also hands out biscuits and water bottles to cops as well as sanitation workers they spot on the road. “Every other day, we also distribute 1khg rice and 1litre oil to poor families in the area,” says Dass.