There are a few things that are quintessentially Mumbai and the beloved Dabbawalas of the city are one of them. With the pandemic striking the financial capital and work-from-home becoming the norm, thousands of dabbawalas found themselves without work and a means to provide for their families.
As many offices around the city remain closed, Johnnie Walker and Impresario Handmade Restaurants, the parent company of the all-day cafe and bar chain SOCIAL, are offering assistance to the Dabbawala community by providing employment and reassurance during these trying times.
It began as a pilot project where orders from SOCIAL were being delivered by Dabbawalas across Lower Parel, Bandra, and BKC, and has now been scaled to 11 SOCIAL outposts across Mumbai thanks to Johnnie Walker.
The beverage brand extended aid by creating sanitisation kits for the Dabbawalas and providing tech support to make the deliveries a lot safer. What began as a relatively small project has now expanded to include a dozen outposts all over Mumbai, including Colaba, Versova, Goregaon, Powai, Vashi, Vikhroli, and Thane.
The Dabbawala delivery system is over 130 years old and is hailed as the world’s most efficient food delivery system with a margin of error of 0.01% – that’s one error in 1.6 crore orders. So, it’s only right to look out for this excellent community that is much-loved and is Mumbai’s pride.
Johnnie Walker and SOCIAL will help Mumbai’s Dabbawalas continue standing on their feet – with people continuing to work from home and a rise in food delivery orders across consumer profiles, the initiative aims to preserve the age-old network that millions of office-goers in Mumbai once depended on.
