No Food Waste

No Food Waste (NFW)^[1] is a movement turned NGO started by Padmanaban Gopalan and his friends Dinesh manickam and Sudhakar Mohan to get rid of the problem of hunger.^[2] The team of No Food Waste scouts for marriage halls, institutions and homes that might have excess food.^[3] The food is collected and then repackaged and distributed to the people in need. On an average, 600 plates of food were being provided daily as reported in 2017.

No Food Waste

Founded	16 October 2014 (2014-10-16)
Founder	Padmanaban Gopalan, Dinesh Manickam and Sudhakar Mohan
Founded at	Coimbatore
Type	NGO
Headquarters	Coimbatore
Location	India
Website	nofoodwaste.org

The movement started in Coimbatore and has now expanded to other districts in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Apart from a hotline, they also developed an app on which anyone who has excess food can log in. The person can send a message which is received by a volunteer of the organization. The volunteer then collects the food after connecting via app.^[4][5] The app also identifies hunger spots by crowdsourcing data to analyse the need.^[6][7]

Awards and recognition

• Social Entrepreneur Award from ICCI
• National award ‘Rashtriya Swayam Siddh Samman’ from JSPL Foundation and the United Nations Global Compact Network India (UNGCN)^[8][9]
• International Visionary Award for 2015 from The Pollination Project of California^[10][11][12]
• Presented in Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium^[13]
• Government of Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister’s State Youth Award was received by Padmanaban Gopalan for No Food Waste^[14][15]
• Commonwealth Youth Award for contributions towards United Nations’s Sustainable Development Goal 02 "Zero Hunger" ^{[16][17][18][19]}
• Presented in Science, Technology & Innovation Forum (STI) 2019 by United Nations for No Food Waste by Padmanaban Gopalan^[20]
• Padmanaban Gopalan bagged National Youth Award 2019 by Government of India for No Food Waste ^{[21][22][23][24][25]}

References

1. Nainar, Nahla (7 September 2019). "How No Food Waste works to redistribute surplus food to the needy in Tamil Nadu". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
2. "3 Coimbatore Boys Win International Grant After Spending A Year Resolving Hunger In India". The Logical Indian. 30 September 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
3. "He wants to end hunger, stop food waste in India". Rediff. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
4. Nessel, Ariel; Project, ContributorCo Founder of The Pollination (27 July 2015). "Meet a Visionary: Padmanaban Gopalan, the Robin Hood of Excess Food". HuffPost. Retrieved 13 June 2019. {{cite web}}: |first2= has generic name (help)
5. Nath, Parshathy J. (17 October 2015). "No Food Waste NGO wants to banish hunger from city". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
6. "No Food Waste: When leftovers reach the hungry through a mobile app". Hindustan Times. 10 July 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
7. Chandran, Cynthia (19 May 2017). "Crusader against wasting food to act in Kerala, too". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
8. "Feeding India's hungry? There's an app for that – Asia Times". Retrieved 13 June 2019.
9. "Jindal Foundation". jsplfoundation.co.in. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
10. Nessel, Ariel; Project, ContributorCo Founder of The Pollination (27 July 2015). "Meet a Visionary: Padmanaban Gopalan, the Robin Hood of Excess Food". HuffPost. Retrieved 28 September 2019. {{cite web}}: |first2= has generic name (help)
11. Rajkumar, Shanthini (21 June 2015). "Don't chuck that food!". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
12. joshuabaer23 (23 July 2015). "Padmanaban Gopalan – No Food Waste". The Pollination Project. Retrieved 28 September 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
13. Sangeetha, P. (21 October 2018). "International laurels for Coimbatore social entrepreneur | Coimbatore News – Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
14. "This young entrepreneur makes city proud – Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
15. "Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu". www.sdat.tn.gov.in. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
16. Staff Reporter (15 March 2019). "No Food Waste founder bags Commonwealth award". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
17. "Indian social entrepreneur wins Commonwealth award". Business Standard India. Press Trust of India. 13 March 2019. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
18. "Winners of Commonwealth Youth Awards 2019 announced | The Commonwealth". thecommonwealth.org. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
19. Sangeetha, P. (15 March 2019). "'Feed people, not landfills'". The Times of India. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
20. "Young social entrepreneur in India turns wedding waste into meals for the needy". UN News. 17 May 2019. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
21. Staff Reporter (13 August 2019). "Honour for 'No Food Waste' founder". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
22. "Shri Kiren Rijiju confers the National Youth Awards for excellent work and contribution in different fields of development and social service". pib.gov.in. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
23. "Winning without waste". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
24. CovaiMail (14 August 2019). "'No Food Waste' Founder wins the National Youth Award". The Covai Mail. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
25. "Citys Padmanaban Gopalan conferred with Govt. of Indias prestigious National Youth Award for 2016–17 at New Delhi". simplicity.in. 12 August 2019. Retrieved 28 September 2019.

External links

• nofoodwaste.org