To prepare the food, the board said, around 750 employees are working in two shifts.

Coronavirus lockdown: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams provides 25 lakh food packets to the needy and hungry! Not just that, the TTD is also feeding stray cattle and dogs too. As the country tackles the health pandemic caused by coronavirus-induced COVID-19, the poor and destitute people are struggling for survival. To aid those in need, the managing board of the world’s richest temple, Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanams (TTD) has stepped up and is providing food for people as well as stray animals who are being adversely affected due to the coronavirus and the resultant lockdown.

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TTD, which manages the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, had issued a statement on Saturday that they had been providing 50,000 packets of food twice a day to homeless, poor, and elderly. It further said that since God embraces animals also, the TTD started taking care of stray animals as well, feeding street animals also twice a day and supplying fodder for the cattle at the SV Gaushala.

In another statement released on Wednesday, the board informed that the number of meals being provided to people has been increased to 70,000 packets of food each time in the morning and in the evening. The TTD has supplied 25 lakh food packets so far, since they started the initiative on March 28.

The statement also informed that the food was being prepared at the employees’ canteen in the TTD administrative building. However, now that the canteen has been declared a red zone for COVID-19, the board has now started preparing the food at the kitchens of Tiruchanoor Annaprasadam complex, the Padmavati Women’s College in Tirupati and Srinivasam Rest House, the board said.

To prepare the food, the board said, around 750 employees are working in two shifts and the packets of food are being sent to the state government for further distribution to all the regions of Tirupati.

The statement further quoted TTD Executive Officer Anil Kumar Singhal as saying that the board has allocated a total Rs 13 crore, Rs 1 crore each to 13 districts, to be utilised for helping poor people, daily-wage earners and those who have been displaced due to the crisis.

For the animals, TTD said, it has arranged the fodder for stray cattle and from April 1, the board has been supplying three metric tonnes of grass and 300 kg of feed every day. Moreover, as many as 500 street dogs are being given food twice a day, the TTD statement read.