Spoon University- Delhi held its first ever Spoon Summit on 20^th March at Innov8, CP. With the theme ‘Feed the Need’, the program featured a host of activities. Beginning with the Speaker Session, wherein Mr. Jatin Chanana, Marketing Head of FooDrool, began with the history of this startup and leading onto the suggestions as to what companies can do to solve the problem of food wastage and hunger by associating with NGOs and food banks. A very thoughtful suggestion from him was that similar to Blood Donation Camps in residential colonies of Delhi, there must be organization of even Food Donation Camps. In fact, he went on to say that charging for wastage of food should be practiced at restaurants and cafes. The questions that followed raised thought-provoking facts such as the absence of a Samaritan Law, and also that food safety maintenance cause a hindrance to food donations.

This was followed by a documentary made by the Spoon University members titled ‘Feed the Need’. Conceptualised by Arushi Sharma and Sonal Chanana, directed by Kritika Narula and with cinematography by Sabhyata Badhwar, it explored the hunger situation in the country and the network of Delhi Foodbank in curbing it. The documentary featured the need for foodbanking, DFB’s initiation, challenges faced (Institutional support, financial help and scaling up) and their vision that ‘No one should go hungry to bed; at least everyone should be able afford one meal a day’.

A new and healthy product was also promoted, called ‘FYNE’, a nutritious dip that is rich in Flavanoids and Omega Fatty Acids. This was followed by a gig by Wannabe Anonymous’ Siddharth Singh and Prakhar Maheshwari. Their jokes ranged from food cuisines from various states battling for a place on the diverse ‘Thali’ to comparisons between food items and Bollywood stars to their satirical takes on the government issues regarding state biases. Their gig culminated to an end with the association of various fruits to real life instances.

The concluding event was the Panel Discussion. Moderated by Mr. Kunal Arora of The Education Tree, the panelists included Mr. Kuldip Nar, CEO, Delhi Foodbank, Chef Saby, a Foodpreneur, Mr. Arun Bhati, Founder, Orahi app and Mr. Aashish Beergi, Co-founder, The MASH Project. The discussion began by stressing how important per capita nutritious food consumption is by linking it to national growth, and the lack of which leaves severe health impacts. The discussion further identified the reasons as to why large amounts of eatables or dishes are cooked, highlighting an issue such as the ego! A problem that was openly stated was that expecting food banks to collect eatables late at night or even midnight, when more than half the society, including the beneficiaries, are asleep.  Handling of food properly was advised as something to be advocated. The role of the youth to connect beneficiaries to donors was highlighted. In fact, as a suggestion, the fact about Food Distribution being branded as Corporate Social Responsibility was also widely talked about. Finally, the lack of any government support was seen to be a major problem in the recognition of hunger and food wastage as important issues.

In the end, while Spoon’s initiative was widely praised, Chef Saby was quoted as saying that “Attitude of the youth is very important. Infact, rather than depending upon foreign companies feeding our hungry population as a part of their CSR, we must integrate farmers to the plates. Urban people, who have lost touch with the cycle of food production, must be reminded about it.”

Featured Image Credits: Mehak Dhawan

Ayesha Sareen

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