Food and love from across the country: Unseen supporters send Swiggy, Zomato deliveries to Jantar Mantar

Food delivery app partners like Thakur and Sandeep have been simply handing over the order to anyone who is going past the barricades to enter the protest site, to be handed over to the protesters. (Express photo by Reva Thakkar)

“Samosas, rice, momos, burgers, patties — people have ordered a variety of things from all over. The last order I delivered here was placed by someone in Mumbai,” Sandeep said.

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All these orders, both Thakur and Sandeep said, were not for any particular person; they were meant to be delivered to the protest site, to anyone who needed it. A typical “Delivery Instruction” could, for example, say: “Please give this food to any protester who has not eaten yet.”

So, food delivery app partners like Thakur and Sandeep have been simply handing over the order to anyone who is going past the barricades to enter the protest site, to be handed over to the protesters.

Some of those who were coming to the protest were also carrying packets of food and bottles of water to distribute to the protesters sitting around the stage. The food and water was being handed over from volunteer to volunteer in a chain that extended from outside the protest site to within — and was being placed on a table, to be distributed to the protesters.

Some of those who were coming to the protest were also carrying packets of food and bottles of water to distribute to the protesters sitting around the stage. (Express photo by Reva Thakkar)

A woman who said she was 30 years old and gave her name as Tanvi said she had come from Gurgaon to Jantar Mantar at 10 am on Tuesday, and had participated in three different kinds of volunteering activities.

Soon after she arrived, she had seen people distributing food, and had joined in, Tanvi said. She had then helped members and supporters of the Leftist student organisation All India Students’ Association (AISA) re-erect their tent, which had been pulled down by police the previous day. Around 1 pm, she had offered to help at the makeshift medical clinic at the protest site, Tanvi said.

“I had been feeling guilty for the past two days because I had not come to the protest site. My sister, who lives in Hyderabad, had been urging me to join, so I took the day off from work and showed up,” she said.

Neet Pal Singh, who said he was 34 years old, was distributing Monaco biscuits to protesters.

“I saw someone who said he had been travelling by train from Mumbai to Delhi, and had not eaten much for the past two days, and was dizzy with weakness. We got him water and something to eat,” Neet Pal said.

“We are all family here,” he said as he moved forward with his packets of Monaco biscuits.

Jigmay Chhinjay Khampa and Khalid Tanveer said they had met for the first time at the protest. They had built a camaraderie, and had volunteered together for the past 2-3 days, distributing dissolvable tablets of Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) and packets of food.

Thanks to the efforts of the volunteers, the initial shortage of food and water at the protest site had been overcome by Tuesday evening. “We had been finding it difficult to even get 30 ml of water, but thankfully, there is no shortage now,” a protester who gave his name as “Hindustani” said.

Sachkand Foundation, a Delhi-based nonprofit that has “Sarbat da Bhalaa (Welfare of All)” as its motto, has been bringing enough food for 2,000 people to the site three times a day. More than 60 volunteers of the NGO have been working at Jantar Mantar in shifts.

“Our only aim is seva (to serve),” Sachkand Foundation president Taranjot Singh Gulati said. He said the foundation has been distributing torches, mosquito nets, energy drinks, umbrellas, and raincoats at the protest site for the past several days.

Several student organisations who have set up tents at the site, too have been mobilising food and water supplies.