We all must have donated food to someone if they ask for it but do you ever put in effort to find such people first and then donate? Apart from our birthdays and anniversaries, it’s a rare thing for someone but there is an individual who took the responsibility of feeding a starving stomach every day for the past 2 years. This World Food Day, Mad4India appreciates the commendable initiative taken by Rotarian Rotaractor Vaibhav Sharma and his club Rotaract Club of Meraki. Stick to know more.
Theme of World Food Day 2023
Every country in the world has an underserved corner where someone sleeps hungry at night. World Food Day is a dedicated day to raise awareness about equal access to food and water for everyone on the planet. Since 1979, every year, some big organizations all across the globe, come together and advocate for the need to feed each starving stomach. In 2023, the theme of World Food Day is “Water is life, Water is food, leave no one behind”.
At a point in life everybody can get water for drinking but can we say so for food? Having a meal twice a day is still a dream for many and there is an individual who is working tirelessly along with his team to put in some extra effort so that they can feed needy people every day and help them sleep peacefully.
Who is Vaibhav Sharma?
Vaibhav Sharma is a 24-year-old sports enthusiast having a corporate job as an event manager. Residing in Faridabad, Haryana, he’s a normal human being like most of us with a job and certain responsibilities in life.
But still, he makes time for the people who lack the basic opportunities in life and does an extra bit to uplift the underserved as much as he can. With the perfect company around him, Vaibhav was forced by his knowns to join Rotaract. Becoming a part of the Rotary Foundation changed his ideas and perspective about life and now, he aims to bring this change to other’s lives as well.
What is the Rotaract Club of Meraki?
Vaibhav joined Rotaract 5 years ago and has enjoyed public service ever since. However, he wanted to serve the underserved in his own way and so, he founded the Rotaract Club of Meraki in 2021. A public service club that aims at helping the underserved people in every way they can. The club initiates events like food donations, and pad donations, launches awareness drives, performs nukkad natak and so on.
It took him months to plan everything for the newly chartered club and when he was all set to step on the ground, the world was shut down again due to the global pandemic.
But, it could not break his zeal and Vaibhav along with his club of 15 members continued on-ground events like donating food and blankets to the needy ones. Risking his own life, he was trying everything he could, to protect theirs. Soon, he realized that donating once or twice a month is not enough and there has to be something continuous if you really wish to bring a change and that’s when he took up the initiative of a 365-day food donation drive.
365 Days of Food Donation Drive – A Thoughtful Initiative!
Rotaract Club of Meraki has an ongoing 365-day food donation drive. In 2022 when it started, the main idea was only to feed starving and needy people every day. Continuing this drive in the initial phase had its own challenges and the club could not complete 365 days as they donated only for 270 days. Everybody thought they failed, but Vaibhav saw it in such a manner that a glass filled half with water is not half empty.
So, he decided to compensate for the rest of the days by making amends in that project and expanded the everyday donation to feed not just humans but stray animals as well. Doubling the impact of the initial drive, Vaibhav and his club took this responsibility bravely and to date have broken the past year’s record and look forward to doing more.
Challenges in his journey
Being a corporate professional, it was not easy for him to take up this initiative alongside a 9-5 job. Just like everything in life has its own challenges, 365 days of food donation drive also has its own challenges for the whole Rotaract Club of Meraki and Vaibhav.
1. Managing Finances
As the Rotaract Club is not funded by any private or government institution, it was a challenge to make enough money to execute all the ideas of public service. There is a fee for all the volunteers who wish to join the club and a part of the total collected amount goes to Rotary as well. But Vaibhav and his team are continuing every single day by contributing as much as they can and even provoke their family members as well.
2. Hustling even on the exhausting days
Having a full-time job, there were days when he was completely exhausted and had no social energy to even change his clothes. But Vaibhav pushed himself hard and decided to never give up. The Rotaract Club of Meraki has come a long way till now all thanks to the zeal of all the members to never give up even after a hectic schedule.
3. Keeping everything aside for the social cause
Being the only son in his family, it was sometimes difficult for Vaibhav to leave his family even on weekends and continue the club service but as soon as his family saw the actual groundwork his team was doing, they also started supporting him. Today, his mom prepares food for the donation and encourages Vaibhav whenever needed.
All these challenges were just a small hurdle for the Rotaract Club. They are still learning and growing and along with it, helping a lot of underserved people in Delhi and NCR. This World Food Day, Mad4India appreciates their efforts for the biggest event of the 365-day food donation drive.
The satisfaction after donating – A push to continue food donation
While celebrating the century (100 days) of 365 days food donation drive, an old lady came up to me begging for food and she mentioned that ‘I am hungry since two days’. That moved me and I thought it would have been her third day with hunger if I have dropped the plan!
Vaibhav Sharma
Recently, the Rotaract Club of Meraki celebrated a successful 100 days of their year long food donation drive event by doing a mega donation. There an old lady came up to them begging for food by mentioning that she had not eaten anything in the past three days. It moved Vaibhav as he thought what if he had dropped the plan in the morning or might have chosen to sleep more on the weekend?
It was a trigger for him which made his initiative even stronger than before. World Food Day is all about spreading awareness of equal access to food and water to everybody and along with it Rotaract Club of Meraki is donating food to as many humans and stray animals as they can.
Enchanting their tagline – “Jai Meraki” loudly, Mad4India appreciates their great initiative and hopes for more such individuals to come up in the society.
Isn’t their initiative amazing? For more insights on the Rotaract Club of Meraki, visit their Instagram.
Feature Image – Rotaract Club of Meraki
If you loved reading the story of Vaibhav Sharma and his Rotaract club, then do give a read to the story of a 16-year old boy who is turning 1400 Waste Jeans Into Sleeping Bags For Homeless People.
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