Page 9 - U4SSC Case study: Reducing food waste, June 2020

This organization collects surplus food at the end of the day from hotels and individual households
and delivers it to the needy people in different parts of Mumbai, including some hospitals where the
relatives of poor patients have come from remote corners of the country and cannot afford to eat in
regular restaurants. As mentioned, apart from meeting the needs of the citizens, it also ensures that
the waste created due to surplus food which would otherwise have to be disposed of, is dealt with.

Figure 1: Staff of the Roti Bank

This meets the U4SSC deliverable on circular economy-effective use of resources. Here, food is being
as a resource for this purpose, and also partly meets SDG 2 and SDG 11.

Promoting circularity

Vision and content

On the one hand, a lot of people are going to bed hungry. On the other hand, disposing of surplus food
has become an urban challenge. This is where organizations have joined together and come up with
this initiative called Roti Bank, which literally means Bread Bank or Food Bank.

The Roti Bank project is a replicable model directed at mitigating the challenge of hunger.

Any city would be sustainable only if the people living in there are satisfied with their lives and are
living in harmony with all the groups. The crime rate in a city is another determinant. With hungry
people around, it would not be possible to have a low crime rate. Hence this basic human need for
food should be met for every citizen. Also, a city having healthy people can contribute to the progress
of the city in a big way.

Case study: Reducing food waste, June 2020 3