Epigamia launches Step-Up Initiative to provide access to food and water to

Epigamia launches Step-Up Initiative to provide access to food and water to migrant workers & village communities impacted by COVID-19 pandemic, with support from Danone Manifesto Ventures                                                                                                                                                

Epigamia has launched the Step-Up Program with a mission to provide food & water to communities impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Driven by a purpose to improve food & food systems within the country, Epigamia has set up many initiatives under this program, right from providing food to migrant workers, to improving access to water in villages around the country. Danone Manifesto Ventures, one of the investors in Epigamia, is supporting the Step-Up program through its global COVID-19 Relief Fund, which helps its investee companies across the world by supporting the latter’s community outreach programs to improve the lives of those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, among other initiatives.

 

Rohan Mirchandani, Co-Founder, and CEO, Epigamia, said, “The pandemic & subsequent impact on migrant workers in the cities got us going. We launched the Step-Up program in May 2020 and have donated and distributed over 7.5 lacs cups & bottles of yogurts. We have partnered with Danone Manifesto Ventures, who supported us for this initiative and provided some guidance on planning & execution. The Step-Up initiative is now a rallying cry in the organization with active participation from employees and our supply chain partners. Over 215 members of Epigamia’s team also stepped-up and donated a portion of their salary towards the distribution of cups".

 

The first phase of the Step-Up program was completed in September through partners such as Robin Hood Army, Zomato Feeding India, Annapurna Movement, Rise Against Hunger, Akshaya Patra, and Goonj, to name a few. For the second phase, Epigamia is focusing on supporting rural communities across the country. Epigamia has partnered with Habitat for Humanity India to help improve access to safe drinking water, and help the communities through training and support for livelihood options including agricultural productivity.

 

"Since Day 1, Epigamia has been a very generous donor supporting Annapurna Movement's on-ground food relief efforts. Through their Step-Up program, we could reach out to thousands of homeless children across Mumbai. These children who were only surviving on rice & dal meals finally had a chance to taste the extremely delicious & nutritional products from Epigamia! The smile on their faces has been priceless!" added Shievani Upadhyay Co-founder, Annapurna Movement.

 

Laurent Marcel, CEO of Danone Manifesto Ventures, said, “In 2020, we witnessed parts of the world suffer irrecoverable losses to their lives and livelihoods, and decided to support our portfolio companies’ initiatives to tackle unprecedented challenges through a dedicated COVID-19 Relief Fund. This led us to support Epigamia’s team and the frontline workers who fought the toughest of daily battles by aiding their financial, health, and safety initiatives. We are proud to assist Epigamia to fulfill their responsibility as a Corporate Citizen of the country in these challenging times”.

 

Danone Manifesto Ventures has also supported other projects led by Epigamia in the areas of People, Health, and Safety (focused on employment preservation by providing financial security and personal protective equipment) and Food Supply Continuity (ensuring frontline workers received hardship allowances). For this exceptional impact investment of approx. INR 5.23 crores in Epigamia made through its COVID-19 Relief Fund, which is outside of its usual investment activities, Danone Manifesto Ventures will be issued a special class of shares.

                                                               

Launched in June 2015, Epigamia is currently available in 30 SKUs under Greek Yogurt, Artisanal Curd, Snack Pack, Mishti Doi, Smoothies, and Spreads - made with Ghee, Plant-based Coconut Milk Yogurt and Almond Milk. The brand retails across approximately 12,000 touchpoints in 25 towns, including modern trade chains like Reliance Fresh, Godrej Nature’s Basket, Future Group, Foodhall, Big Bazaar, and Hypercity; e-commerce platforms including Big Basket and Amazon; and numerous general trade retailers. Additionally, the brand recently launched its Direct-to-Consumer online platform available in Tier 1 and 2 cities in the country.

YES BANK reinforces its commitment to communities

YES BANK reinforces its commitment to communities to combat COVID-19

YES BANK reinforces its commitment to work with health authorities and the Government to support communities during COVID-19. Building upon the Bank’s previously announced support to the COVID-19 relief efforts, the Bank has partnered with Akshaya Patra to support its efforts to provide cooked meals to daily wage workers, migrant labourers and the low income & marginalized section affected by the current lockdown.

Towards this, the Bank has enabled redemption of YES BANK Credit and Debit Cards reward points towards contribution to Akshaya Patra’s COVID-19 Relief Feeding Programme. Customers can now redeem their rewards points in denominations of INR 250, INR 500 and INR 1000 on www.yesrewardz.com/ to support three meal packages of 10, 20 and 40 meals, respectively. All Donations are eligible for 50% tax deduction under section 80(G). In order to claim the exemption, cardmembers can write to donorcare@akshayapatra.org quoting Name, PAN card number, transaction date, mobile number and email address.

In addition, the Bank pledges support to the residents of Rajasthan as a contribution collection banking partner, by the Government of Rajasthan for collection of donations for the Chief Minister Relief Fund COVID 19.

Account Details:

Account Name: RAJ. CMRF COVID 19 Mitigation Fund	Account No: 002494600002500
IFSC Code: YESB0000024	Branch Address: YES BANK Limited, C Scheme, Jaipur

In solidarity, employees have voluntarily contributed an amount equal to one day’s salary to the PM CARES Fund to support ongoing relief efforts.

Prashant Kumar, MD & CEO, YES BANK, said, “YES BANK is committed to support the most vulnerable in our society who have been impacted by the disruption to daily life. Through our partnership with institutions like Akshaya Patra, we believe that we are taking a small but significant step towards fulfilling our commitment. We will continue to work with authorities to support the Government’s efforts and community providers serving those economically impacted by COVID-19.”

The Bank had recently committed INR 10 crore to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES Fund) to help combat COVID-19 and support ongoing relief efforts in addition to a mandate to collect donations for the PM CARES Fund. 

In order to ensure convenience for donors while contributing to the PM CARES Fund, the Bank has enabled payments through various channels – digital banking channels including NetBanking and Mobile Banking via IMPS, RTGS, NEFT; redemption of YES BANK Credit and Debit Card reward points towards contribution, registered UPI customers on YES PAY Wallet; donations through fintechs and corporates such as PayU and Max Life Insurance. For more details, please visit https://www.yesbank.in/donations-to-pm-cares-fund.

How in the current times, social media content creators are playing their part

How in the current times, social media content creators are playing their part to
help those in need by leveraging Facebook’s fundraiser feature

With India’s fight against COVID 19 outbreak going intense these days, it has become our moral responsibility to come together to fight this crisis situation. In wake of the ongoing pandemic in the country, Facebook had recently launched the 'Fundraisers’, a feature that allows people to start a fundraiser on the social networking site for a cause.

Furthermore, Facebook, also announced a ‘Social For Good Live-a-thon’ initiative to encourage people to donate to the charities and our social media content creators have emerged as the true stars of this initiative. For the uninitiated, over 150 partners which include actors, creators, musicians and many more who are going live on Facebook on their respective accounts to entertain and engage their fans and raise funds for COVID relief. Interestingly, creator Varun Pruthi single handedly raised 10 Lacs in less than 4 days and well known creator Ashish Chanchlani managed to raise over 2 Lacs in just 50 mins for their respective fund raisers.

#SocialForGood LIVEathon is a week-long charitable initiative which started on April 24, 2020, and will last till May 1, 2020. Not just content creators, but several celebrities will also be taking part in Facebook’s ‘Social For Good Live-a-thon’ in the coming days. Celebs like Hina Khan, Vidya Balan, Sonali Bendre, Rashami Desai, Arjun Bijlani, etc. have gone LIVE on the social networking site to raise funds for the cause. Actresses like Surbhi Jyoti, Nyra Banerjee and many more will be seen supporting the initiative in the coming days.

1.       Varun Pruthi is an actor, director and also a motivational speaker. Recently Varun has raised 10 Lakhs for Helpage India through a noble initiative by Facebook. He is raising funds for HelpAge India Charity/NGO established in 1978 and where a little contribution will make a big impact.. https://www.facebook.com/donate/237071710856964/2947392002007663/

2.       Ashish Chanchlani is one of the favourite viners for the millennials of the country. He is famous for his slapstick comedy. He is versatile, and also a great actor. His videos have given us some of the best ROFL!. Ashish through Facebook’s #SocialForGood Live-athon, is  encouraging people to donate to GiveIndia. Established on April 28, 2000, as a non-profit under section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, GiveIndia is India's largest and most trusted donation platform. They support 1250+ nonprofits nationwide with contributions of ₹450+ crore from 13 lakh donors.

https://www.facebook.com/donate/1593339944137942/2692063127588771/

3.       Ritabhari Chakraborty joined hands with RJ Praveen to raise 2 Lac+ for Help Age India. Ritabhari Chakraborty is an Indian Bengali film actress and producer. One of the prominent names in the Indian television and film industry, she made her first appearance in television as the female protagonist of the popular Indian Bengali television. RJ Praveen known for his versatile skills is a radio jockey. 

https://www.facebook.com/RJPraveenRedFM/videos/228085115169952/

4.       Sona Mahapatra performed live to raise funds for Covid19 relief work for Akshaya Patra. The “Akshaya Patra Foundation” is a non-profit that provides 2 million free midday meals daily to underprivileged school kids across India & is currently using their food making infrastructure & distribution network for relief during COVID-19 in various states across the country by providing freshly cooked meals and distributing food relief kits with essential groceries to vulnerable communities,

https://www.facebook.com/sonatheartiste/videos/883972432107643/

Some celebrities who have raised funds via the Facebook fundraiser feature

1.       Vidya Balan was able to raise over INR 50k via Facebook’s fundraiser for Akshaya Patra Foundation. The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a non-profit organisation in India that runs school lunch programme across India.

https://www.facebook.com/RealVidyaBalan/videos/838345680011590/

2.       Sonali Bendre, an actress who has starred in many renowned movies including Hum Saath Saath Hai, Murari, etc and a host to popular TV shows like India’s Got Talent, went live on Facebook to raise funds for Cuddles Foundation. Having raised close to INR 13k, Cuddles Foundation is the only NGO in India providing holistic nutritional support to underprivileged kids fighting cancer.

https://www.facebook.com/IAmSonaliBendre/videos/2540059992920506/  

3.       Arjun Bijlani, an Indian television and film actor has appeared in well-known shows like Left Right Left, Miley Jab Hum Tum, Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi, Naagin, etc raised INR 55k for St. Jude India. St. Jude India ChildCare Centres is a not-for-profit organization that provides free of charge shelter and holistic care to children who are undergoing cancer treatment along with their families.

Link to Arjun’s fundraiser