Samaritans provide food to those quarantined

Nitish Sharma

Tribune News Service

Ambala, May 5

Amid rising Covid cases, people from different quarters are coming forward to provide free of cost nutritious food to home-isolated Covid patients in Ambala city and Ambala Cantonment.

Vivek Sablok, a member of one such group in the city, said, “We came across a Facebook post of a social organisation ‘Govind Ki Gali Parivar’ and they have been helping Covid patients by providing them with food in Delhi, so we decided to start the same here in Ambala City. It has been seven days since we have been reaching out to the Covid patients in the city, who are in isolation and cannot have access to cooked meals. Recently, Ashok Kumar Sharma, Deputy Commissioner, Ambala, had authorised tiffin service providers and we contacted the same service providers and place orders on behalf of the patients and make payments.”

“The meals are being ordered by families where women members have also tested positive for the virus and those who are living alone. Currently, there are 30-35 persons in the team and more people are joining daily. Finance hasn’t been an issue for us so far as residents have been helping in different ways. Sometimes, people sponsor one-day food. It started with 14 tiffins on day one, yesterday, we delivered nearly 100 tiffins and on Wednesday the number of tiffins increased to over 110”, he added.

Another member said, “We ourselves deliver food at the doorstep of Covid patients, but we ensure that no one comes in contact with us. We have started getting calls from Ambala Cantonment and other districts as well and we have been helping them too by sharing details of those people who have been providing food in their respective areas.”

Similarly, Ashwani Bhola, in Ambala Cantonment, said, “We are associated with Seva Bharati and for the past five days we have started providing home-cooked food to home -isolated Covid patients in Ambala Cantonment. Currently, home-cooked food is being provided to 10 to 12 patients. We have also set up a kitchen and from Thursday we are going to start it. Along with the food, we are also providing them immunity-boosting kadha. We have also set up a 50-bed isolation centre at a school in Tepla village for Covid patients.”