Collecting excess food and distributing it among the needy is probably one of the noblest ways to serve a country where hunger deaths are still a bitter reality.

Ranchi-based social outfit Aman Youth Society has taken up the noble cause by starting a roti bank and installing a fridge at the community hall in Mujahid Nagar in Hindpiri on Sunday.

“We consider it an important step towards eradicating hunger,” Md Aslam, a founding member of the organisation, said.

Organisation secretary Deepu Gadi said a team of volunteers had been doing social work for over a decade.

“We organise blood donation camps, provide ambulance service and have also installed a deep freezer for keeping dead bodies. We thought of giving Roti bank a try,” Gadi said.

Aman Youth Society will operate the roti bank with the support of Feeding India, a nonprofit. “We got the happy fridge as a donation from Feeding India’s partner organisation Elanpro,” Gadi said.

Feeding India, a nearly five-year-old nonprofit, was started by management graduate Ankit Kawarta in 2014.

It collects excess and unus-ed food from parties, restaura-nts and events and distributes them among the needy in over 70 cities across the country.

The organisation functions with the help of over 10,500 volunteers, known as hunger heroes. People often contact them for donating surplus food.

The food collected by “magic trucks” are either given to the poor or kept in community refrigerators or “happy fridges”.

“We (Feeding India) have just opened a branch with about 35 volunteers in Ranchi and tied up with Aman Youth Society,” said Priyanka Goutam, a student of St Xavier’s College.

However, opening such a bank is perhaps easier than running it effectively.

A community fridge, installed by some do-gooders in the city earlier, didn’t run long.

“We will initially operate it by accepting donations from neighbourhoods and also spend money from the organisation’s fund and ensure that food for at least 50 people are kept in the fridge daily,” said Nadim Iqbal, a member of Aman Youth Society. Nazia Aslam, councillor of ward 22, distributed food packets from the happy fridge to some needy people who had gathered there, marking it functional.

Nazia Aslam, councillor of Ward 22, inaugurated the roti bank by distributed food packets from the community fridge to a few needy people who had gathered there.