Daily Times

The multi-faceted pop-music icon, Peabody award winning producer and social activist Aaron Haroon Rashid, popularly known as Haroon, visited “Mari Mobile Dastarkhawan” in Islamabad where he participated in the evening meal distribution to over 300 underprivileged citizens. Haroon was accompanied by CDRS Founder, Mr. Todd Shea, where he interacted with the citizens queued up for their evening meals. Haroon also visited the kitchen and catering facility of “Mari Mobile Dastarkhawan” where the meals were being freshly prepared and packed for distribution. Indeed, Mari Mobile Dastarkhawan has served over 91,000 underprivileged citizens in Rawalpindi and Islamabad in a span of just over five months.

Launched in partnership with Todd Shea’s Comprehensive Disaster Response Services (CDRS) in April 2021, “Mari Mobile Dastarkhawan” provides two meals a day [breakfast and dinner] to over 600 daily wage laborers, street children, and people who are in search of employment away from their villages, as well as those residing at “Panah Gah”.

Inspired by the Prime Minister of Pakistan’s Ehsaas Program, MPCL hopes to play its part in tackling the burden of poverty and malnutrition in Pakistan and aims to cater to over 200,000 people during this 1-year pilot project, with plans to scale-up this project to other parts of the country including MPCL operational areas.

In addition to quality cooked meals and its distribution every day, Mari Petroleum and CDRS teams also ensure COVID-19 pandemic awareness by educating the people during the daily food drives and providing them with preventive essentials such as masks and hand sanitizers.