changeadminThere is an old saying, ‘Not all heroes wear capes’, and it fits perfectly when we speak of the volunteers of the Robin Hood Army, marching towards their mission to feed the poor and eliminate hunger to a great extent.
The similarity between the legendary English outlaw and the famous Archer, Robin Hood, and the Robin Hood Army is surely lifting the downtrodden.
The only difference is that the non-profit organisation is not centred around making money and works in collaboration with various restaurants to distribute food to the economically weaker sections of society.
Today, we bring you the story of the Robin Hood Army – their background, mission, and contribution to the societal issues through our series, The ChangeBlazers.
The Robins
What started with a group of 8 people in 2014 has now grown to over 1000 volunteers on its rolls. Neel Ghose, the founder of RHA, was inspired by an organisation named Refood in Portugal and decided to bring a similar model back home to India.
Upon his return to Delhi, he called his friend Anand Sinha to establish something similar, and that’s how the journey of RHA began.
The volunteers of this zero-funds organisation come from diverse walks of life and refer to themselves as ‘Robins’.
They are mostly young working professionals and students who contribute solely to funnelling excess food to those in dire need of it.
Dressed in green jerseys, the Robins look for a venue to pick up food and ensure it reaches the homeless and underprivileged.
The source of food is not limited to restaurants, as the Robins ensure that surplus food from weddings and other similar functions does not go to waste and reaches the poor.
The Hyperlocal Model
The model the Robin Hood Army operates within is ‘hyperlocal’. The clusters formed, divided by localities, come together to form a network.
The restaurants in each cluster help collect excess food and hand it over to the Robins. The Robins then distribute the food collected to orphanages, the homeless, and HIV patients, among others.
In turn, the organisation ‘earns smiles’.
The Role of Social Media in Enhancing the Reach of the Robin Hood Army
Social media has been crucial in connecting and solidifying a formidable network that seems to be growing and breaking all geographical barriers with each passing day.
In 2016, the first city considered beyond India’s borders was Karachi, Pakistan. The collaboration between the Robin Hood Army and a few startups, corporates, and media houses on social media helped generate food and feed nearly half a million poor people in Karachi.
The true reason behind the successful attempt to feed such a vast number of people during the first international outreach is the decentralisation of responsibilities and efforts among the different participants.
Every volunteer took full ownership of their duties and worked tirelessly to ensure stable coordination between Robin Hood Army and all other participants across social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Additionally, the absence of monetary exchange also helped by not hindering the process of alleviating hunger and ensured that the project was conducted transparently.
A Few Recent Contributions of the Robin Hood Army to Serve the Needy
According to the latest Global Hunger Index, India ranks 102nd. Hence, this report sheds light on the problem of famine faced by the country’s citizens.
And the situation worsens during natural calamities like earthquakes or cyclones, when non-profit organisations like the Robin Hood Army come to the Government’s rescue.
During May 2020, the state of West Bengal was severely hit by a cyclone called Amphan, which killed more than 70 people and affected hundreds.
The Robin Hood Army distributed dry rations to 800 families in West Bengal, including 500 families from Kolkata and 300 families from Jhargram.
A few other contributions include collaboration with startups like Zomato, ScoopWhoop, and Uber to serve food to one lakh people on Independence Day, 2015, and the project was called #Mission100K.
During April 2016, the zero-funds organisation also donated 75,000 litres of drinking water to drought-hit farmers of Maharashtra.
During the Existential COVID-19 crisis
Since the massive outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global rate of hunger has risen significantly.
Subsequently, citing this existential crisis, the Robin Hood Army launched a great initiative to flatten the curve of rising hunger.
The initiative, named #Mission30M, aimed to serve 30 million meals to deprived sections of society from 1st July to 15th August 2020 across ten countries.
The list of those countries includes India, Uganda, Bahrain, Sri Lanka, Botswana, the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Nepal.
Since the kick-off of the #Mission30M, more than 50,000 Robins have signed up to make this a successful project.
Besides, a few outreach initiatives were conducted through extensive media platforms, such as billboards and podcasts, to raise awareness among all local citizens so that interested individuals could also participate in mobilising efforts.
Over the preceding 10 days leading up to Independence Day, the entire RHA team consistently worked to achieve the desired goal.
The organisation released the final count for the mission a few days ago, revealing how every single Robin across eight of these countries served 23 million meals across 160 cities.
Final Thoughts
We hope the story behind The Robin Hood Army inspires you to feed the deprived.
The organisation is one of those working to bring about progressive, positive change in our society by combating global hunger and ensuring food is available to everyone who needs it.
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