Page 10 - U4SSC Case study: Reducing food waste, June 2020

Implementation

Key features and Design: The project is being implemented through a close working relationship
between the well-established network of the Dabbawalla Association of Mumbai and an NGO called
Roti Bank.

The additional resources they are using are:

• vehicles for transportation;
• volunteers for supporting the food distribution activity; and

• food preservation mechanisms.

The process of the implementation is described below in Figure 2.

Figure 2: The process of the Roti Bank

Enablers in the process have been the vision of the NGO Roti Bank, particularly under the leadership of
Mr D. Shivanandhan, Former Commissioner of Police of Mumbai, the volunteering spirit of the people,
and a proven and effective delivery network of the famous Dabbawallas.

The innovation and smartness of this project lies in its uniqueness, in the fact that what would otherwise
be waste in a city is converted into one of the most important resources for sustaining human existence.
The role of ICT in the project is to connect the demand with the supply nodes, effectively starting
with the call centre, where any entity with surplus food on a particular day can call the implementing
organization. Besides this, a database of routine donors and recipients is maintained for an effective
utilization of surplus food in the city.

4 Case study: Reducing food waste, June 2020