Mangaluru: Undeterred by the ongoing LPG crisis, social worker Saif Sultan continued Hope Foundation’s Ramzan outreach, distributing meals and aid to students, hospital bystanders, widows, orphans and poor families across faiths in Mangaluru.Sultan said restaurant partners stayed the course despite fuel constraints. About 120 packets are prepared daily with support from five hotels — Cochin Village, Sabka Dine, Cool Elementz, Sattva and Food Plaza. Another 50 to 60 packets are cooked by a local caterer, an elderly man in need of financial support, whom the foundation assists by providing regular business. Even amid the ongoing fuel shortage, the restaurant partners assured continued support for the Ramzan food service, Sultan said.“For the past 20 days of Ramzan, our team worked almost round the clock, distributing iftar packets to around 200 students from Lakshadweep and Kerala staying in PG accommodation in Jeppu and Marnamikatta,” Sultan, a management trainer by profession, told TOI. The students received samosas, juice, fruit and other items every evening to break their fast.The effort extended well beyond iftar. “Between 11pm and 3am, the team distributes around 190 packets of hot food to hospital bystanders, many of whom came to Mangaluru from different places for treatment,” he said. The meals include parathas, boiled rice, ghee rice and biryani. Nearly 8,500 dinner packets have been distributed so far during Ramzan.Beyond food distribution, the foundation supplied clothes to 450 widows and orphans and provided food to five orphanages — two run by Christians, two by Hindus and one by Muslims.It also extended monthly ration support worth Rs 2,000 each to about 850 families across India. Under its water project, the foundation took up digging a well at Neermarga, expected to benefit around 45 families. On Eid, the team plans to distribute 500 ‘boxes of happiness’ to those in need.
