Bengaluru, 17 June 2021: During these times of distress, it is heartening to note that consumer start-up brands of Bangalore such as Colive, Big Basket, FirstMeridian & One of the leading staffing company TeamLease (Fortune India 500) have collectively recognized the daily sacrifices of India’s delivery heroes, who ride around town all day delivering food, groceries, medicines and other essentials to common households, putting themselves in harm’s way just so that India doesn’t need to step out and risk getting infected.
In honor of these heroes, these brands have joined hands to start the #SaluteTheHero initiative, to provide free lunch meals to delivery executives irrespective of their employer/brand at 50+ Colive properties in Bangalore. The initiative has been conceptualised by Colive before the mentioned partners joined hands to thank our delivery workers The campaign has been a resounding success, with support pouring in on social media from consumers throughout the country, united by the hashtag #SaluteTheHero, the hashtag has reached out to over a million people & received over 150K likes & hearts.
To spread the message and be part of the cause, every time one gets a delivery, all one needs to do is post a thank you note with their delivery executives’ number on their social media page with #SaluteTheHero & tag @Colive handle. One can also enter the required details on #SaluteTheHero official website- http://salutethehero.com/. Start-ups will gift a meal to the Delivery Hero by sending them a list of locations where the free meal is available. They can walk in and pick up their free meal between 12:00 to 2:00 pm before resuming their tireless work. They only need to show their ID card for proof.
Colive launched the #SaluteTheHero campaign during the 1st week of May, 2021, the initiative aims to deliver 50,000 meals to Delivery Heroes during the lockdown period as all local eateries are shut which was the go to place for these young heroes to grab a quick bite as they are on the move. Colive using its distribution network of 100+ properties in Bengaluru, and with a central kitchen, so the food is distributed across all locations while it’s fresh and warm.
Suresh Rangarajan, Founder and CEO of Colive, says, “When one of the initial days of lockdown, I had my order delivered, it was 3 pm, I don’t know why but something urged me to ask if he had his lunch given the local eatery are closed, he replied Nanu oota Madilla, that was the point that this idea came to my mind. While most of the world are safely working from home, what is keeping the economy running is the tireless work of some of these heroes. The delivery workers are selfless heroes, and without their bravery, both the economy and the spread of the virus can create chaos. With the #SaluteTheHero campaign for delivery executives, we are committed to providing and ensuring the timely distribution of free meals during their work hours”.
KB Nagaraju, Chief Customer Officer at Big Basket: “Today, a delivery executive will brave the weather, the virus, and the lockdown to ensure that someone who orders a healthy meal just gets it at their doorstep, whether it’s early in the morning or even 3 AM at night. Big Basket recognize the immense impact their service has on the people who we service. Simply put, without them, there’d be no consumers and it just makes sense for us to reward their efforts in whatever way we can”.
Rituparna Chakraborty, Co-Founder & EVP at TeamLease: “The contribution of India’s delivery executives in helping us manage the pandemic and the lockdown parameters, is both impressive and indispensable. As a staffing company we understand the emotion & pain of the families of these delivery heroes while we stay safe inside. We support Colive in this noble cause & Thanks them from all our staff who has been benefited by this initiative”.
Sudhakar Balakrishnan, Group CEO of FirstMeridian: “It’s a beautiful compensation of life to be able to help because that joy of giving is incomparable & more than anything wealth can give. Seeing the smile on these true heroes is the true satisfaction. Today, World has bigger problems, we are getting together to do our bit of small acts of goodness that can make bring the change”.
