Why we flew a blimp in London during the ICC Cricket World Cup finals
At Freshworks, in addition to making refreshingly easy-to-use software products, we strive to be a great employer. We believe that happy employees bring happy customers, and we do whatever it takes to make sure we provide our employees with a happy work environment. For several years now, Freshworks has been giving all employees free meals and snacks throughout the day. In our office in Chennai alone, we procure over 2000 meals per day, and nearly 3000 cups of coffee and tea.
Food donation at Freshworks Chennai
Our employees loved these free lunches and dinners, particularly the special meals we give away on Wednesday for some mid-week motivation. A couple of years ago, while enjoying the spread, a small group of employees also began to think about the amount of food that goes to waste. They noticed that a lot of the food procured was being wasted after dinner, and began to pack the food and give them away to the hungry. This soon became a routine. We made sure that not a morsel of food we procured went to waste. To this day, all our extra, unused meal boxes are given away to the poor on the streets, or are shipped to an old age shelter so residents there can enjoy the meals.
Over time, we as a company realized that this wasn’t something that was unique to us. Freshworks certainly wouldn’t be the only company in the neighborhood that was procuring food for employees and that was handling a lot of leftover food. This was just a sample of a much larger problem.
Freshworks < Chennai < Tamil Nadu < India
We launched #Cricket4Life at this year's World Cup to call attention to the global hunger crisis. It affects one in nine people worldwide.
In association with @FeedingIndia, we will provide 100,000 meals for people in need. Here's what you can do: https://t.co/9h9RKEZ5Bx pic.twitter.com/mMTDJiZ4Qw
— Freshworks Inc (@FreshworksInc) July 14, 2019
We realized that every company in the city, state, and across India was dealing with a lot of food waste. This, at a time when 250 million people in India were going hungry to bed every day. That pricked us. We felt it was time for us to move beyond just giving away leftovers, and do something bigger and more serious. We wanted to make sure our peers were aware of the gravity of the issue, and so we tried to get individuals across not just India but also the world to sit up and take notice of the problems of hunger, and food waste. The idea was to bring people together to wake up to the problem, and contribute to improving lives.
And what better stage could we have asked for, than the Cricket World Cup tournament – an event that brings together millions of people world wide. We know that cricket is a sport that has a crazy following in India, with people doing things like fasting, painting their bodies, tonsuring their heads, to show their love for the sport and Indian sportspersons.
The cohort at Freshworks is no different.
#cricket4life
Cricket is more than just a game.
We launched #Cricket4Life 1500 feet above the ground to talk about global hunger in association with @FeedingIndia.
Click to know how you can contribute: https://t.co/Xt2CDmceq6 #CWC19Final #CWC19 #CWC2019 #ENGvsNZ pic.twitter.com/NJMLAn4NSC
— Freshworks Inc (@FreshworksInc) July 14, 2019
We as a company are as passionate about cricket as we are about building simple, easy-to-use software products and deliver moments of wow to our customers. Freshworks as a company loves cricket so much that we have murals of the Indian wicketkeeper and former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on our walls in the office. The company supports the sport to the extent that last week, during the semi-finals between India and New Zealand, the company set up large viewing screens in the cafeteria so employees could follow the game as they worked. The walls of the office were plastered with the India flag, and many in office, including our CEO, were wearing the India jersey.
So we decided to take this opportunity to draw attention to the growing problem of food wastage and hunger. And that’s what the blimp was doing in the skies over the Lord’s at London yesterday. We flew a blimp with #cricket4life printed on it, to tell people that the cricket stage could be used to better the lives of malnourished and hungry people.
We felt that was a splendid way for us to capture the attention of the millions of cricket-crazy people across the world and get them thinking about how they can improve the lives of hungry people.
We joined hands with Feeding India, a not-for-profit social organization, which works to end hunger, malnutrition, and food waste in India, to kick off a longer partnership with them, and also work with them to allow other companies across the world to donate food for the hungry.
We at Freshworks have taken the first step with a promise to give away 100,000 meals to hungry people in India. We invite people from across the world to donate to Feeding India and join us in our journey to end hunger and make lives better for people in India.
Click here to make a donation.
