DISHOOM DONATE OVER 10 MILLION MEALS TO CHILDREN IN THE UK AND INDIA

Since 2015, for every meal served, the Dishoom team have donated a meal to a child in the UK or India that might otherwise go hungry – a ‘meal for a meal’. This commitment began during Ramadan as Dishoom’s act of charity (‘zakat’) and was made permanent at Diwali the same year.

Dishoom are delighted to have now reached the 10 million meal milestone with their long-term charity partners, Magic Breakfast and Akshaya Patra. Both charities provide nutritious free meals to school children, ensuring they arrive in the classroom with full bellies and enquiring minds, helping to end food poverty as a barrier to education. Dishoom cares deeply about breaking down these barriers, which tragically remain a very real and ever-present problem in the UK and India.

Since making their ‘meal for a meal’ commitment, for every breakfast served in Dishoom’s cafés, the team have donated a meal via Magic Breakfast, and for every meal served at lunch and later, they’ve donated a meal through Akshaya Patra. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, Dishoom were donating over 2.5 million meals a year through their charity partners. When the restaurants closed their doors in March 2020 in response to coronavirus, the Dishoom team quickly turned their minds to finding ways to support their team, protect the business, and provide much-needed support to the children and families provided for by Magic Breakfast and Akshaya Patra.

With the restaurants closed, Dishoom quickly dreamt up a delivery service, providing a way to have café favourites dishoomed to the doors of guests. They made the same ‘meal for a meal’ commitment that had been in place in the cafés since 2015, donating a meal through Akshaya Patra for every meal served for enjoyment at home. By June 2020, Dishoom had launched their first at-home meal kit, providing all the ingredients (and know-how) needed to create their iconic Bacon Naan Rolls in the comfort of one’s own kitchen. For each Bacon (or Vegan Sausage) Naan Roll Kit sold they donate a meal via Magic Breakfast.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, as many as 1.8 million school age children in the UK were at risk of hunger in the morning. For the past 20 years, Magic Breakfast has worked tirelessly to ensure that no child in their partner schools is too hungry to learn. A hungry child cannot concentrate in the classroom, which has a long-term impact on educational attainment and social mobility. By providing free, nutritious breakfasts without stigma or barrier to school children in the UK, Magic Breakfast ensure pupils have the energy needed to make the most out of their morning lessons, so that all children can reach their full potential.

Coronavirus has only made the tragic levels of child poverty in the UK worse. As of January 2021, Magic Breakfast has welcomed more than 500 new schools to their family. This means they have doubled the number of schools they are working with and tripled the number of children they are reaching, compared to 2020. Magic Breakfast now works with over 1,000 schools in England and Scotland, offering a healthy breakfast to around 170,000 children every school day.

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic Magic Breakfast has continued to support schools, adapting their in-school breakfast provision model and working with schools to offer take-home packs, as well as home deliveries for vulnerable or hard-to-reach children through their partnership with Amazon. This ensures children at risk of hunger continue to have access to a nutritious breakfast regardless of school closures.
Just as Dishoom’s ethos is to bring people from all walks of life together over a delicious meal and break down barriers in doing so, The Akshaya Patra Foundation also believes in the power of food to break down barriers. ‘Akshaya Patra’ translates as ‘unlimited vessel of food’. Working with state schools across India, Akshaya Patra provide nutritious free midday meals to millions of children daily, helping to provide the energy and security they need to realise their full potential. In India, these meals play a dual role in the lives of many – not only do they ensure no child is too hungry to learn, in many instances they also provide the very reason for children to attend school. For many girls in India, equal access to education as boys is not a given – girls living in developing countries are often the first to be withdrawn from education when their family is experiencing financial difficulties. By providing a free midday meal, Akshaya Patra provide even more incentive to ensure these children receive the education they deserve.

Akshaya Patra work with over 19,000 state schools across India, supporting over 1.8 million children. During the pandemic, in states where schools are open, Akshaya Patra have continued to operate their midday meal programme, providing hot, nutritious lunches to school children. Where schools have closed owing to the pandemic, Akshaya Patra have been distributing ‘Happiness Packs’ to families, which contain a mix of food, learning materials and sanitary products. Each pack contains enough to feed a family of four two meals a day for up to a month, ensuring children still have access to the food and materials needed to continue their education.

Despite much opening-and-closing of cafés in the past twelve months, Dishoom are delighted to have donated over 1,225,000 meals to their charity partners in 2020, with almost 250,000 meals donated through their at-home offerings alone. It is with thanks to their charity partners, the hard work and dedication of every team member and, of course, the support of their kind guests and patrons that Dishoom have now reached the milestone of providing over 10 million meals to children in the UK and India.

Outside the pandemic, Dishoom marks such milestones with team celebrations, connecting the restaurants with local communities and providing opportunities for the team to meet the children their work supports. Each year, Dishoom hosts a Magic Breakfast takeover in their cafés, inviting children from the charity’s partner schools to enjoy a healthy Dishoom breakfast, to enjoy educational activities and hands-on cookery classes. Dishoom also runs a Bombay Bootcamp each year, taking all team members who have been with the company for five years to visit Bombay with Dishoom’s Founders and Executive Chef. The team are taken on a tour of Dishoom’s most-loved places in the city, eating at the remaining Irani cafés, taking in the sights, and (most importantly!) visiting the Akshaya Patra kitchens, before serving lunch at some of the schools that the foundation supports through their midday meals programme.

This year, celebrations must necessarily take a different shape. Whilst coronavirus means Dishoom’s team are necessarily apart, they are coming together (virtually!) to run, walk and cycle ‘10 Thousand Miles for 10 Million Meals’ – the distance from London to Bombay and back (almost!). Each team member is raising funds for Magic Breakfast, and for each mile covered, Dishoom will also donate a meal. For more information, or to donate, please see:
https://magicbreakfast.enthuse.com/cf/10-thousand-miles-for-10-million-meals
For more information on Dishoom’s long-term partnerships with Magic Breakfast and Akshaya Patra, please visit:
www.magicbreakfast.com
www.tapf.org.uk
www.dishoom.com/charity