According to statistics, Odisha is one of the most backward states in the country. Although the state boasts of great biodiversity and natural mineral deposits, the economic conditions aren’t the best. In a bid to improve the standard of living for the downtrodden and homeless, the government of Odisha has opened up a food ATM in the district of Sambalpur, Odisha. This is the very first food ATM in all of Odisha. And here’s all that we know about it.
Odisha Gets Its First Food ATM
The Sambalpur Municipal Corporation in partnership with ‘Swaichha’, a local organization, launched the food ATM on Tuesday. Named Trupti, the idea of the food ATM is to feed the poor people in the town of Kuchinda in Sambalpur free of cost. The food ATM is located at the District Headquarters Hotel (DHH) in Kuchinda.
Food ATM 'Trupti' a community refrigerator is now installed at Kuchinda, Near Sub-divisional Hospital Where one can store surplus food, collected from households, parties and restaurants.1/2 pic.twitter.com/Ui9qohSGak
— H & UD Dept (@HUDDeptOdisha) November 8, 2019
Coming to how the food ATM works, people can store or donate surplus food in the ATM which is a refrigerator and the underprivileged can partake off of it. The refrigerator can accommodate up to 700 liters of food and will ensure that people will have an ample amount of food to eat. This way no one goes hungry. The municipality is encouraging people to donate food for these refrigerators instead of throwing it away in the guise of leftovers.
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The concept of launching a food ATM was the brainchild of Swaichha’s member, Dilip Panda who is a social activist. The food ATM will be functional from 7 in the morning to 10 in the night. Subhankar Mohanty of SMC said that the municipality along with volunteers of Swaichha will be in charge of managing the ATM. They have also gotten SMC’s food inspector on board to ensure that the quality of the food is nothing but the best. As of now, people have only been asked to donate packed vegetarian meals.
This is not the first time that Odisha has come up with a cost-friendly and helpful initiative. Earlier on, an NGO by the name of Happy Fridge had set up a refrigerator to feed poor people at Station Bazaar. And not just that, the state had also introduced milk ATMs to cut down on the usage of plastic. All you have to do is insert your money into the machine and procure milk in your own container. We think that Odisha is working its way to progress and we are all for it.