Asha Venkatesh has been homebound for over a year with her cancer treatment.
When the COVID-19 lockdown began, she became more worried about the underprivileged people who were forced to stay in their homes without food and jobs.
The thought spurred her to launch an initiative to feed them. Her husband and CEO of the fast-food chain Goli Vada Pav, Venkatesh Iyer, offered her the helping hand and thus born the 'Feed the Hungry' project to distribute vada pavs, the popular Mumbai street food, among people hit hard by the lockdown.
The project gathered momentum soon and they were joined by NGOs - Give India, MILT Charitable Trust and the Robinhood Army.
In the past 12 days, they raised more than Rs 15 lakh via crowdfunding.
Venkatesh sounds excited about the project's success. “So far, we have been able to distribute one lakh vada pavs, covering around 1,200 persons every day. What started as the thought of a person was quick to gain momentum and attention.
The government bodies have now asked us to increase the target to one lakh vada pavs each day to feed migrant workers and daily wagers. We have now collaborated with online crowdfunding platforms for donations,” Venkatesh said.
For each donation, the campaigners would add the same amount to the project. “Each donation doubles the impact that way. For every Rs 1,000 donation, we add another Rs 1,000 to distribute vada pavs to the scores of daily wage labourers and their families who are struggling for food during the lockdown,” said Brijesh Singh, Head of Strategy and Marketing, Goli Vada Pav.
Network expansion
Since the company had stalled its operations due to the lockdown, its stock could be used for distribution, thereby providing employment to its 2000-odd staff who are otherwise stuck at home.
Each vada pav prepared at Goli Vada Pav costs Rs 15.
The vada pav distribution was limited to Mumbai alone in the initial stage. With the expansion of the network, the food is now being distributed in different parts of Maharashtra, including Aurangabad, Nagpur and Nashik, and Karnataka's capital Bengaluru.
Venkatesh says he is proud of his wife for launching such a noble initiative. “Asha struggles to cope up with the pain of back-to-back chemotherapy and physiotherapy sessions. She is well aware of difficulties in staying indoors as well as the life of the poor. The cause she is working towards is amazing and inspiring. Despite the pain, she alone collected Rs 5 lakh for the campaign,” he said.
Business of compassion
Venkatesh’s business too is based on a similar motto of compassion – feeding the needy and creating employment opportunities.
The founder of Goli Vada Pav was born to Rajalakshmi and Sreenivasan, who was known as ‘Colgate’ Sreenivasan as he worked in the toothpaste factory.
Growing up in a middle-class household as the son of a man who adorned a brand in his name, Venkatesh went on to become famous as a desi entrepreneur who developed the country’s most popular snack into a food chain brand! But that was not an overnight decision.
After spending a decade-and-a-half in the world of corporate finance, Venkatesh found out that capitalism had its own share of problems. “Capitalism is very selfish. There’s a lot of money being made, but 90 per cent of that money belonged to five per cent of the population. No one cared how the rest lived. People live without food and jobs. My aim was to reinvent capitalism with compassion,” he said.
That thought prompted Venkatesh to come up with a creative corporate solution that would take Indian street dishes to great heights by providing employment to hundreds. The company he co-founded with Shivadas Menon in 2004 currently employs over 2,000 staff with a monthly average salary of Rs 10,000.
“Another aim was to make hygienic food affordable to lower-middle-class Indians,” Venkatesh said.
Between commuting for work and back, and with no much time to spend on food, the fast-food snack became Mumbaikar’s most affordable staple diet.
From the lone outlet in Kalyan, Venkatesh’s vada pavs slowly spread its wings across the country. The company now has 350 stores across 90 cities in 21 Indian states.
He overcame the initial problems, such as raw material costs, funding issues, shelf-life quality and real estate, by outsourcing supply and operations.
US-based Vista Processed Foods, that collaborates with McDonald's, was roped in to supply frozen patties. Venkatesh said, “Chappathis, vadas, chutneys and pavs are sourced from across the country are shipped to our stores. The frozen food has a shelf life of over six months.
Our business model is time- tested and insulated against inflation. What we sell is not just food, but a perfect business idea for India,” he said.
Visit the website to donate money to the 'Feed the Hungry' initiative:
