Popular indian restaurant, Dishoom announced that they have donated over 10 million meals through their ‘meal for a meal’ charity partnership with Magic Breakfast and Akshaya Patra.
“From Bombay with love” Dishoom is a beloved restaurant that pays homage to Irani cafes and the food of Bombay.
Opened early last century by Zoroastrian immigrants from Iran, there were almost 400 of these cafés at their peak in the 1960s. Today, fewer than 30 remain. These cafés broke down barriers by bringing people together over food and drink. They were the first places in Bombay where people of any culture, class or religion could take refuge from the street with a cup of chai, a simple snack or a hearty meal. People from all walks of life shared tables, rubbed shoulders and broke bread together.
Like the old Irani cafés, Dishoom breaks down barriers: in its restaurants and delivery kitchens, which employ and serve people from all walks of life, at its events, and through charity, donating a meal for every meal served – 10 million meals so far.
Dishoom serves a lovingly curated menu of Bombay comfort food and award -winning drinks in beautiful restaurants and (since 2020) via delivery for at-home enjoyment. Everything Dishoom does shares its love for Bombay’s culture, heritage and people, and everyone is welcomed with warmth.
Since 2015, every meal served by the Dishoom team has donated a meal to a child in the UK and India that lives in impoverished communities who may have otherwise gone hungry – the campaign titled 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.
The business is now delighted to announce that they have donated over a whopping 10 millions meals to children in the UK and India with their 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.
Even before the pandemic, up to 1.8 million school children in the UK were at risk of hunger in the morning. Magic Breakfast for the past 20 years have worked tirelessly to ensure that no child goes hungry and has access to a delicious, nutritional breakfast.
The Covid-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the tragic levels of child poverty in the UK.
Throughout the 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 provides nutritious free midday meals to millions of children daily, helping to provide the energy and security they need to realise their full potential.
Akshaya Patra works with over 19,000 state schools across India, supporting over 1.8 million children.
This year, celebrations must necessarily take a different shape for Dishoom. 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
