Nagpur :- For the past 8.5 years and without a single day’s break, Sudha Agrawal has been distributing food to patients, their caretakers and even to the stray animals. With the steadfast support of her team of nine people and her family, Sudha distributes food in Government Medical College & Hospital, Rashtrasant Tukdoji Regional Cancer Hospital and Snehanjali Centre For Cancer Patients. “My family is my backbone,” she highlighted as the reason behind the kitchen never being closed. In a small room behind her home, she along with her staff start their day at 5 am with cleaning the vegetables, deciding the menu for the day and cooking for 800 people.
“Giving people rotis is the main aim. Rice and other things are fine but rotis are important for getting nutrients and being satiated,” she said. Food is usually distributed by noon and people save rotis to have it for lunch or dinner. She is currently considering expanding the scope by distributing food for other two meals as well. Three years back, she installed machines to make roti but before that, she along with her team used to prepare rotis with their hand. In Covid-19, 2000 food packages were made all by hand along with the raw food packets.
She started her service on Dec 17, 2015 when her househelp absent for 15 days came back leaner than usual. Upon enquiry, Sudha found that her house help’s husband was admitted in Indira Gandhi Government Medical College & Hospital (Mayo). While her husband got food from the hospital, she ate leftovers or whatever people donated to her. “This touched my heart and from the next day along with my 3 friends, we began this work,” she informed. “We outsourced 25 food packages and within a few minutes, it was finished,” she said.
She encountered multiple obstacles ranging from getting GMCH dean’s permission to taking full responsibility if anything goes wrong, to her companions backing down, but she was determined to give back to the society. In April 2019, they stopped distributing food to Mayo hospital after the launch of Deendayal thali.
Apart from distributing food, she also sends milk and dal twice a day for the patients. “A boy told me that he shifted to the hospital only because he got milk from us,” she mentioned, stating how these stories encourage them to work harder. While Sudha has been working selflessly for the people, she now plans to give back to the country by planting trees. “This project is under the pipeline, we are looking for the land and will also need the support of the government,” she said.
