Buy A Sankara Meal Box In Moncton And Give Covid Relief To India
This story is part of a series called, Business Does Good, stories about Maritime companies contributing time and money to making their communities stronger.
MONCTON — Sankara, an online multicultural marketplace, is making it possible to help India as it struggles with its Covid-19 outbreak by buying Indian food from a New Brunswick vendor.
For every Sai Krishna meal box it sells in Moncton, Sankara is donating 10% to GiveIndia, which is directing the funds it raises to address food and healthcare needs.
“We are basically an Amazon for cultural products from all around the world,” said Kyle Tomagan, Sankara’s digital marketing coordinator.
The website reaches a large portion of New Brunswick, from Halifax to Fredericton. They offer Indian, Mediterranean and Vietnamese cuisine, as well as arts and crafts from all over Africa and the Middle East.
Sankara prides itself on selling authentic food and primarily hiring immigrants. Every meal box comes with a biography of the chef that gives background information like when and where they learn to cook a dish.
“The clients can get to know about the culture of the vendor and get to know the people behind the meal box,” said Tomagan.
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Shikha and Raman Sobti are the ones behind the #HelpIndiaBreathe meal box. They own Sai Krishna Food Services Corporation, Sankara’a Indian food vendor for Moncton.
“It’s not just a business relationship,” said Tomagan. “We’ve established good rapport not just as people do at work, but as friends as well.”
This relationship is one of the reasons Tomagan pitched the idea for the campaign. He also added that thousands of Indians are living in the Moncton – Riverview – Dieppe area.
“There is a really strong sense of community between local Monctoners and the Indian community,” Tomagan.
Right now, hospitals in India are overwhelmed with more than 20 million cases of Covid-19 and thousands dying by the day.
“Not even the morgues can handle the total volume of bodies being sent over,” said Tomagan.
Donations sent to GiveIndia are used to provide PPEs, healthcare providers, and further resources. After starting the campaign, Tomagan was pleased to see a positive response from the community.
“We are glad to see the empathy from the people,” said Tomagan.
The campaign is exclusive to Moncton, but that doesn’t mean that other New Brunswickers can’t participate. Tomagan says that some out-of-towners are buying their friends in Moncton a meal box to donate.
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Because of the scale of devastation in India, Tomagan said that their donations will most likely make a small impact.
“But whatever we can do to help out our Indian brothers and sisters both local and international,” said Tomagan. “Then we will try to do it as much as we can.”
The #HelpIndiaBreathe meal box runs until May 16th.