This online platform is bringing together hungry folks stuck at home and home chefs willing to make a few extra meals - so that you can get a meal cooked nearby during these times of COVID-19 pandemic. OneTiffin, an initiative by Insomniacs, a Mumbai-based digital agency, helps you get home-cooked meals from hosts in your neighbourhood or your own residential premises, in your times of need. The portal connects people in need of daily meals with those willing to provide those meals across neighbourhoods. The money earned through this initiative goes directly to the PM Cares Fund.
The platform will be open for orders on April 8, 2020. Speaking about how they came up with the idea, Govind Rai, one of the co-founders says, "The idea came from the team itself, three of our members are not from Mumbai but other cities, they can't cook meals and they also didn't have a cook in this situation. They were struggling and surviving just on Maggi. We thought we could do something about this. Also, it is Insomniac's fifth anniversary and we wanted to give back to society and so that's how one tiffin was born."
So how will it work? OneTiffin is in the form of a website currently where the foodie (one who wants a meal) and a home chef (one who will cook) both can register. "We verify the home chef for which we have multiple parameters based on which we decide. Once they are on board they can add their menu, when they want to cook, what ingredients, everything they can manage on the portal itself. A foodie can come to the website and specify where he wants the delivery. We can find out where the home chefs are within the building or the residential society. We are not going into delivery, just matchmaking within the building or colony. For example, there might be 20-30 apartments and two to three home chefs in a society. The foodie can check the food options, once they choose the home chef will then give the pickup time. Finally, the foodie has to go with their utensils to carry the food. No transport, no packaging thus less chance of exposure," explains Aryan Vijay, another co-founder of OneTiffin.
The team is conducting multiple checks with the help of the Arogya Setu application released by the government. "We keep looking at the hotspots, how many cases are there, and if a residential society falls under the areas marked by the app to be a having Corona positive cases then we will be discontinuing the service for a period of time. This is to ensure that it doesn't spread within the society as well," adds Aryan.
Foodies can pay by credit or debit cards or cash if that is convenient. The home chef gets their share of the payment and the rest entirely will be donated to the PM Cares Fund instituted for Coronavirus relief. "As long as the lockdown is there, we want to help people as much as possible, at least one meal at a time. We do not want to make money out of this right now," says Pranav Patadia, one of the other co-founders of the platform.
OneTiffin is headquartered in Mumbai, however, pre-registration on the platform garnered inquiries from Bengaluru and Ahmedabad as well."For now, we will cater to these few cities but in a week or so we will cater pan India. Every city has to be mapped for us to be able to rope in the home chefs. It is an extensive exercise. Currently, the promotion is being led by people finding their matches on their own, mostly organically," adds Pranav.
As for their future plans, the team says that they will extend it all across India once they see the responses and also when the outbreak is over. Insomniacs, the digital agency was founded five years ago and they focus on real estate and performance marketing, where they serve brands in industries like education, FMCG, events and more.
