COVID-19 has impacted a large population of the underprivileged and daily wage earners, impacting lives and livelihoods and resulting in critical challenges. Recognising the need to support these hard-hit sections of the society, DBS Bank India joined the nation’s fight against COVID-19 and partnered with Akshaya Patra Foundation to provide meals and other essentials to those impacted by the pandemic. Contributions from DBS Bank India helped in serving 3.7 lakh freshly cooked and nutritious meals to affected people across the northern belt of India.
DBS Bank India also encouraged customers and employees to support the initiative. For every donation made by the customers and staff, the bank made a matching contribution of double the amount, thereby tripling the impact.
Speaking about the initiative, Surojit Shome, Managing Director & CEO, DBS Bank India, said “Our partnership with Akshaya Patra Foundation helped vulnerable sections of the community who were severely impacted by the pandemic. We are truly grateful to our customers and colleagues who also contributed towards this.”
DBS Bank India has been supporting The Akshaya Patra Foundation since January 2020, when the bank announced its ‘SparkAJoy’ campaign. During this campaign, the bank donated 10% of the cashback from its Infinite cardholders to the Foundation. The initiative helped in providing groceries for mid-day meals in Ahmedabad.
Acknowledging the contribution of DBS Bank India, Shridhar Venkat, CEO, Akshaya Patra Foundation, said, “Incidentally, till date, we have served nearly 80 million meals through our COVID-19 Food Relief Efforts. And all this has been possible through the constant support and goodwill of corporate donors such as DBS Bank India that value empathy and humaneness above all else.”
DBS Bank India and Akshaya Patra Foundation also run a campaign to provide more meals for children. The bank works with partners across the food and agriculture sector to help create more efficient supply chains and reduce food loss and waste.
DBS is committed to changing the way we view consumption and production, to do more and better with less and build a sustainable future. It works with various social enterprises that address pertinent food waste challenges in innovative ways, such as addressing nutritional deficiencies with sustainable food sources and converting waste cooking oil into biofuels. Further, in 2020, DBS Foundation launched a special category of grants for innovative businesses working towards Zero Food Waste, as part of its annual Social Enterprise Grant Programme.
