This Zomato delivery executive in Kolkata is feeding underprivileged children with cancelled orders

Have you ever wondered what happens to the order you cancel on Zomato or Swiggy? Well, restaurants give away the food to the delivery guy. While many opt to eat it, a few others like Pathikrit Saha decide to do something more. A Zomato delivery executive in Kolkata, Pathikrit feeds the underprivileged children of his locality by distributing egg and chicken rolls, Chinese food, biryani, and other food items that the users cancel on Zomato.

While these are commendable on their own, Pathikrit’s good deeds don’t stop there. In the evening, he can be seen teaching kids under a tree. Further, he also takes the initiative of arranging feasts in his locality sometimes.

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Speaking to Efforts For Good, Pathikrit recalled how his good deeds began:

“Four years ago, I was crossing the streets near Dumdum Cantonment in Kolkata when a disheveled teenager boy came running and fell at my feet. He started begging desperately for money. I thought that he was addicted to drugs, and wanted money to waste on cheap, harmful drugs. I tried to dissuade him, but his desperation was so wild and pathetic that I slapped him and he broke down.”

Later, Pathikrit confronted the boy, who explained that he had no other option but begging, and if he fails to bring money by the end of the day, his mother would kill him. He wasn’t the only one; there were many like him facing the same scenario.

Pathikrit said,

“I found numerous other homeless kids around the same railway station having a dark past and an even darker future ahead of them. None of them had ever stepped inside a school. The older ones were into drug abuse, begging and even petty criminal activities, while the younger ones would just play and laze around all day, soon to grow up and join their predecessors", reports Efforts For Good.

Pathikrit, who was then working with Kolkata Municipal Corporation, started an evening school with 17 kids who would sit on a mat on platform number three of the railway station. Over the years, the number has gone up to 27, and many got enrolled in government schools, reports IDiva.

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As time passed, Pathikrit quit his job and decided to devote his entire time to the kids. It wasn’t an easy task, as he had his family to support too. He said,

“So, three months ago, I started working as a delivery executive with Zomato. This is when I befriended a kind-hearted restaurant owner in Dumdum, Kolkata, who stepped into my team after learning about my kids. Now, the cancelled orders from Zomato and all the excess food from his restaurant come to my kids as their evening snacks, and sometimes dinner.”

Pathikrit added how restaurants can end the woes of underprivileged children just by feeding them with the food that’s been cancelled by customers. To take his initiative further, Pathikrit started a non-profit venture Help Foundation, which recently received a formal registration.

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