It is not a piece of news that COVID has hit our economy majorly. With all industries being affected in their own ways, some were affected more than others. The travel, F&B, event and cinema industry are undoubtedly one of the worst affected ones.

But these setbacks didn't let the entrepreneurial spirit die and business owners innovated and worked hard to keep their businesses going. While all the entrepreneurs were working, some went over and above and helped others as well in times of distress.

We came across a few warriors in the F&B industry whose out of the box thinking impressed and motivated all of us!

1) Riyaaz Amlani

Riyaaz Amlani is one of the biggest names in the F&B industry in India. The MD & CEO of Impresario Handmade Restaurants, the parent company for major restaurants brands in India namely SOCIAL, Salt Water Cafe, Smoke House Deli to name a few. With over 50 restaurants in 15+ cities, Mr Amlani has always been the pioneer in innovating the cafe culture in India.

Mr Amlani's restaurant chain SOCIAL & Salt water cafe partnered with the Mumbai Dabbawalas to work as their delivery partners.

The popular dabbawalas of Mumbai were one of the worst affected by the outbreak of COVID-19. Their entire business model was based around delivering homemade food to offices and with the shift to Work From Home, there were no more dabbas to be delivered to offices. “When the first lockdown hit, it was the toughest time we’ve ever faced; our members were left with little to no money in their bank accounts,” said Ulhas Muke, President, Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust which is a part of the Mumbai Dabbawala Association.

By partnering with dabbawalas as their delivery partners, Mr Amlani's chain of restaurants provided them with a steady source of income. There was an initial hesitation of not being able to adjust to the technology that restaurants like SOCIAL used to deliver food and the dabbawalas not being accustomed to it. But that was soon worked out and a pilot batch of deliveries made in the areas of BKC, Lower Parel and Bandra(west) with other areas to be rolled out soon.

While no one at one point could have imagined dabbawalas working as food delivery partners, but necessity truly is the mother of invention.

2) Saransh Goila

The Instagram famed celebrity chef and owner of the famous "Goila Butter Chicken" chain of restaurants, Saransh Goila compiled a google sheets link for people across India and made home-cooked food easily available for all.

Even when he owns a restaurant, he realised when you're sick, the thing you need the most is simple home-cooked food which was nutritious as well since taste is not a priority at that moment. In the second wave of COVID-19 where the entire family was infected by the virus, people living alone and senior citizen unable to take care of themselves, people found it difficult to help each other because they were recovering from the virus. Saransh realised it was the need of the hour to help people get home-cooked food delivered to their doorstep as easily as it was to get from any food delivery app.

He put out a message on his Instagram helping him compile a list of all home chefs who were willing to cook and deliver food to the people affected with COVID. Thousands of people came together to make it possible to make a google sheet of home chefs in every city in India.

It was a quick and much-needed move of the hour which helped thousands of families all over India recover quickly and healthily.

3)Meena Navneeth Sangani & Sneha Navneeth Sangani

This mother-daughter duo based out of Vadodara launched a non-profit homemade healthy meal available for covid patients.

With her own hotelier experience, Sneha worked tirelessly with her mom Meena to provide meals to people affected with COVID at cost price to patients and free to underprivileged patients. To ensure the meals reached safely to every patient, Sneha along with her brother delivered the meals personally to avoid any third party contact.

Ms. Meena started her day at 5 am in the kitchen every day to ensure the meals could be cooked on time to deliver to everyone in need. Sneha also put out a link on her social media platform for people to sponsor meals for underprivileged patients and this is how they were able to help a lot of patients.

In 4 weeks, they were able to make and deliver 1500+ meals. The cherry on the cake was the little handwritten messages "Get well soon :)" that made every patient eat with a smile on their faces.

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