Chef Vikas Khanna & Bollywood Actor Sonu Sood Become Real Heroes During COVID Lockdown
On Eid, a festival synonymous with giving hope and joy and helping others, Michelin star chef Vikas Khanna initiated the ‘world’s largest Eid feast’ as his team served nearly 200,000 people in Mumbai as part of the ‘Feed India’ initiative.
Owing to the pandemic and nationwide lockdown, several underprivileged families of India have been affected as their means of livelihood have either become limited or stopped. Migrant workers have been left homeless and cannot afford food.
The world-renowned chef, who has been managing everything from New York, has also distributed about 4 million of dry ration meals to the needy across India amidst the COVID-19 crisis, has constantly been updating about the Eid fest on Twitter. On May 18th, Khanna tweeted about organizing the world’s largest Eid feast with 100,000+ kgs of dry ration, fresh-dry fruits, spices, kitchen utensils, chais, juices, etc.
The feast – that began on Friday – had the food being collected at the Haji Ali Dargah. It was then loaded in trucks and distributed around Mohammed Ali Road, Dharavi, and Mahim Dargah in Mumbai with the help of over 200 volunteers and personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) while following all guidelines of social distancing.
Chef Vikas Khanna was also touched by actor Sonu Sood’s gesture of sending migrants back home in special buses and has renamed a dish after the actor.
Bollywood actor Sonu Sood has been helping thousands of migrant workers, stranded in Mumbai due to the COVID-19 lockdown, return home. He is the first B-town celebrity to arrange hundreds of buses and food for daily wage workers amidst the lockdown.
Thank you so much bhai. Words from you give me more power and encourages me to work harder on reuniting them with their loved ones❣️Love u loads ❤️ https://t.co/QEHn4BSLPq
— sonu sood (@SonuSood) May 26, 2020
With state borders sealed and trains and buses suspended, thousands of men, women, and children were left with no other option but to walk, sometimes more than 1,000km (620 miles) to reach home.
Sood, who rose to fame for his role as a wily villain in the 2010 superhit “Dabangg,” has worked with some of Bollywood’s biggest names such as Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, and Aishwarya Rai has actually become a real-life hero for the desperate and stranded daily wage workers in Mumbai.
