- Food for Survival by the CCRC
We Sri Lankans have always been a charitable bunch, though this is sometimes hard to remember. In fact, from 2009 to 2018, Sri Lanka ranked as the ninth most charitable country in the world. Our overall level of giving was 51%, and, at 46%, we had the highest rate of volunteering in the world.
Today, as we all know, Sri Lanka has fallen on hard times, dealing with blow after blow, from the 2019 Easter attacks to the pandemic to the ongoing economic crisis. One of the industries most badly hit by all this turmoil was the food and restaurant industries.
However, through it all, even this hard-hit industry has kept its sense of giving intact, coming together to help those less fortunate even at times when the future of their own industry seemed far from certain (and still is very much a struggle).
Founded in 2019 by Harpo’s Cafes and Restaurants Group Founder and CEO Harpo Gooneratne, the Colombo City Restaurant Collective (CCRC) has, through the pandemic and even today, strived to lend a hand to those less fortunate. Through its CSR initiative, Food for Survival, the CCRC is once again rallying to help, in whatever way it can, to make sure no one goes to bed hungry.
Speaking to Brunch, CCRC Charity Coordinator and Cafe Kumbuk Co-Founder Dinali Bandaranayake-Dandeniya explained that Food for Survival was born from CCRC members wanting to come together to help alleviate the pain of hunger now facing many families.
Through the pandemic, starting from around August of 2020, Bandaranayake-Dandeniya shared that CCRC would come together to offer as many as 300 food parcels per week to vulnerable communities.
“Food for Survival is the overarching umbrella for this CSR initiative. We realised that local communities were struggling for food and basic hot meals,” she said. Noting that while restaurants have been hard hit right throughout the pandemic and beyond, she added: “We felt we were in a position to be able to do something, so we considered doing a rice parcel drop every Sunday, partnering with groups like the Robin Hood Army and another group called the Empowered Rangers, and put out messages to our members and asked them to pledge a number of packets each week. The Robin Hood Army comes and collects it to go to different areas and communities.”
Today, with Sri Lankans facing unprecedented economic challenges, ranging from arduous queues to purchase gas, rising costs of basic grocery items, long power cuts, scarcity of basic and essential medications and much uncertainty in this time of crisis, the CCRC has launched Food for Survival, a food drive of sorts that encourages CCRC members and the general public to donate dry rations that can be used to give poor, vulnerable, and severely affected families food for survival in this most troubled time.
Bandaranayake-Dandeniya explained that these dry ration packs give these struggling families enough supplies to be able to feed themselves for a few days at a time. “I wear a Rotarian hat as well, and people reach out all the time asking to help,” she said. “I thought it was a better option right now to give families packs of dry rations to get them through this time. It is now time to come together and help make a difference in our society. No one should go to bed hungry, and that’s where we can all collectively help end hunger across our communities by assisting the poor, vulnerable, and those severely affected by the current economic challenges.”
This newest iteration of Food for Survival began in April with its first few batches of dry ration packs being delivered in the first week of May. “We’ve had some amazing donations come through from all around the country, many of which were individual donations. We’ve also reached out to our food and beverage industry contacts in Australia and the UK, and their responses too in donating and doing what they can to help the programme have been quite heartwarming,” Bandaranayake-Dandeniya said, noting that Women in Media, in addition to a substantial donation, also contributed 500 Flow sanitary napkins to be distributed as well, while restaurants in Australia and the UK have pledged portions of their proceeds to Food for Survival to help make a difference here in Sri Lanka.
Food for Survival’s first week of dry rations dispatch saw 50 dry rations packs distributed last week, with another 50 packs going out this week, with the programme continuing for as long as it is able to, based on donations and supplies. With the dry rations packs going out each week, the CCRC will be scaling back its cooked food parcel distributions to become a fortnightly activity to focus on sending out as many dry rations packs as possible.
Working with different communities over the last two years to make a difference in whatever way the restaurant industry can, Bandaranayake-Dandeniya shared that the most rewarding part of the initiative had been being able to make a difference in the lives of so many people and seeing how grateful communities had been for the support.
Difficult times bring out the best in people, but only if we support each other, and this is something the CCRC has taken very much to heart. Through Food for Survival, it has managed to do just that – lend a helping hand to so many in need.
For more information on Food for Survival, or to get involved, please contact CCRC Charity Coordinator Dinali Bandaranayake-Dandeniya via dinalibd@hotmail.com or contact the CCRC via its Facebook page @ccrcsl.
Dry ration list (suitable for one family)
Rice 1 kg
Lentils 1 kg
Pulses 1 kg
Milk powder 1 pack
Salt 1 pkt
Pepper 1 pkt
Chilli powder 1 pkt
Soya packet 2 pkts
Dried sprats 2 pkts
Tea 1 pkt
Sugar 1kg
Fish tins 2 cans
Coconuts x 2
