Texas: Raj Asava and his wife Aradhana (Anna) created a movement - HungerMitao - which supported the North Texas Food Bank and the Feeding America network of food banks in an effort to bring attention and include the Indian American community in the fight against hunger.
“HungerMitao is a volunteer-driven grassroots movement. Since its launch in 2017, it has played a significant role in raising awareness about hunger in the US, improving community engagement, and channeling resources and contributions from the Indian American community to fight hunger,” says Asava. Five years ago, this movement has grown to include many American communities and provided the Feeding American network of food banks with more than 50 million meals.
“HungerMitao is as much about eradicating hunger as it is about unifying the fragmented efforts of our community and focusing it on the humanitarian cause of hunger,” Anna Asava says. In the spirit of ‘give where you live’ the couple, who recently received lifetime achievement medals from US President Joe Biden, is now reaching out to the 4 million strong Indian diaspora in the US to join in the mission to ensure that no one goes hungry across their adopted land.
Raj Asava, a senior executive for several significant US firms, retired from his position as Perot Systems' chief strategy officer in 2010. “I was struck by the shocking reality of hunger in our own neighbourhoods of Plano and Collin county. The realisation that many children in the school system faced hunger over the weekends left me stunned. It was inconceivable that such a visible and affluent county and country could have hidden hunger within its borders,” Asava recollects.
