By Sekhar Seshan. Consulting Editor, Business India

Helping communities affected by the continuing crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic to move ahead requires collective action and support, explains Ola’s communications head Anand Subramanian.

In pursuit of this objective, the vehicle-hire major’s social welfare arm, Ola Foundation, is serving 120,000 meals to support its driver partner network. This is a part of the nationwide initiative ‘Drive the Driver Fund’ that Ola Foundation launched at the outset of the pandemic in March. The Foundation has now partnered with The Akshaya Patra Foundation to deliver wholesome meal kits to drivers and their families across 13 Indian cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune and Jaipur.

“As India continues to embrace the new normal, we are continuing our drive to support the driver community at large, partnering with Akshaya Patra to further serve tens of thousands of families in yet another small way through this nationwide initiative,” Subramanian says.

The fund’s initiative, focussed on key areas like emergency support and essential supplies which are of great significance to driver partners during these challenging times, has already enabled more than 10 million meals for this community. Drivers and their families have also been provided access to free medical consultation, he adds.