Food for Paws

BY PUJA GUPTA 

New Delhi, Sep 17  Zomato Feeding India, the India chapter of Zomato Feeding Foundation, has launched Food for Paws – an initiative to provide sustenance to strays across the country.

As a part of its ‘Food for Paws’ initiative, it will create kits containing rice, water, dry food, eggs, and turmeric required for a stray for an entire month. These components have been designed in consultation with a veterinarian. Each kit costs Rs 150 and can support one animal with one meal each day for a month.

Speaking about the campaign, Chaitanya Mathur, Head- Zomato Feeding India said:”Zomato Feeding India has always been at the forefront solving for hunger. Our purpose of ‘food for all’ allows us to widen our purview and find more avenues of bringing an incremental change in society. India alone has over 30-35 million stray animals that do not have the right sources to food. With Food for Paws, our aim is to prioritise their health and create a better structure for animal welfare across the country. Every contribution made for our cause would ensure care, sustenance and medical support towards these homeless strays.”

It will use 100 percent proceeds in procuring and distributing kits. It has partnered with several NGOs on ground who will ensure their safe distribution and brands like Pet Sutra, Just Dogs, Kennel Kitchen, FreshWoof – Urban Tails Pvt Ltd, and Poochles India among others to procure quality ingredients for the kit.

“We have been taking care of homeless animals for seven years. We have limited resources, and often have to choose between feeding all of them or investing in their medical care. This partnership with Zomato Feeding India for ‘Food for Paws’ will solve this dilemma for us. We look forward to working with a partner that can help us maximise our impact,” added Dr Aditi Badam, Founder-Posh foundation.

Ashish Anthony, Founder and Director, Just Dogs shared: “Stray dogs being scavengers depend on leftover food found on the streets to survive which does not prove to be balanced enough for their nutritional requirements. Generally, most people end up feeding them biscuits or boiled rice and roti which can lead to health issues at times. So, we at Just Dogs Foundation have been feeding strays near our vicinity either a portion of balanced dog food or a mix that contains dog food which comparatively helps strays have a healthy life as they too have a right to lead a good and healthy life. Just Dogs supports the Food for Paws movement as we would also like to do our bit to contribute to giving strays a good and healthy life that they deserve.”

Food for Paws will begin with Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune in the first phase.

(Puja Gupta can be contacted at puja.g@ians.in)