Food relief with the arithmetic published
Community kitchens and weekly parcels across Kidderpore and Metiabruz. Every rupee is accounted for in a published statement, and the cost per parcel names what is inside it.
One parcel costs ₹340, and here is the ₹340
Rice and dal ₹198, oil and salt ₹52, vegetables ₹58, packaging ₹14, transport ₹18. Ninety-one per cent of income goes to programmes and the remaining nine covers two salaried coordinators and the audit — we would rather name that number than bury it, because a charity claiming a hundred per cent is either not counting something or not paying anyone. The full annual statement is published, not summarised.
What we actually do
Three programmes, and the limits of each stated with it.
Weekly parcels
Rice, dal, oil, salt and seasonal vegetables to 1,240 households a week. It is a supplement, not a full diet — roughly four days of staples for a family of four, and we say so on the leaflet.
Community kitchens
Six kitchens serving a cooked midday meal six days a week. Sunday is closed because the volunteers who run them need a day, and pretending otherwise would end with fewer kitchens.
School supplements
A morning meal at four schools during term. It stops in the holidays, which is when hunger is worst — that gap is the thing we most want funded and have not solved.
Volunteering, honestly
Three steps, and the second one puts most people off.
Come once, on a Tuesday
No form and no commitment. Turn up at the Kidderpore kitchen at seven and pack parcels for three hours. About half the people who come once do not come back, which is fine and expected.
Come back four times
Only then do we train anyone on distribution. It is a deliberately high bar — households come to depend on the same faces, and a volunteer who stops after two weeks costs more than they gave.
Take a round
A named route, one morning a week. Two hundred and fourteen people did this last year, which is the figure the charity actually runs on.
Questions worth asking any charity
Ask all four of these wherever you give.
How much of my donation reaches the programme?
Ninety-one per cent. The other nine covers two salaried coordinators and an annual audit. Be sceptical of any charity claiming a hundred per cent — it means someone is unpaid, someone else is covering the overhead, or the accounting is doing work the words are not.
Is my donation tax deductible?
Yes, under section 80G, and the receipt is issued within seven days with the registration number on it. If a receipt has not arrived in seven days, chase us — that is our failure, not a delay you should absorb.
Can I see the accounts?
The full annual statement is published rather than a summary, including the two salaries. A charity that publishes only a pie chart is choosing what you get to see.
Should I donate food instead of money?
Usually not. We buy rice and dal at wholesale rates that individual donors cannot match, so ₹340 in cash buys more than ₹340 of shopping. Food drives are welcome when they are staples in bulk and unwelcome when they are assorted tins — sorting those costs volunteer hours we would rather spend packing.
From the kitchens
Posted by the coordinators, not by an agency.