PepsiCo makes massive pledge to India's Covid fight: 5 million meals, 25,000 testing kits

In support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to the nation to help tackle the COVID-19 outbreak, FMCG giant PepsiCo India has announced that it will provide over five million meals to the underprivileged and 25,000 COVID-19 testing kits through its NGO partners across India.

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In a statement released by the company, it said, "PepsiCo India along with PepsiCo Foundation, the philanthropic arm of PepsiCo, has committed to providing over 5 million meals to support families impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. This initiative is part of PepsiCo’s #GiveMealsGiveHope global programme. The company is also extending support to the healthcare and diagnostic facilities, supplementing their efforts to combat the pandemic by providing 25,000 COVID-19 testing kits."

The statement added that PepsiCo has partnered with Akshaya Patra Foundation to execute the initiative of providing meals to about 8,000 families.

"PepsiCo India has partnered with Akshaya Patra Foundation to provide cooked meals to the underserved communities, through their centralized kitchens where they are partnering closely with the local authorities for distribution of meals. PepsiCo India has also partnered with Smile Foundation to provide dry food rations to support meals for over 8,000 vulnerable families adversely impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak," the statement read.

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The cola giant has also partnered with Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) to provide COVID-19 diagnostics kits to support the Government of India’s efforts around scaling up access to COVID-19 testing. FIND is a non-profit organization and  World Health Organization’s (WHO) collaborating centre for laboratory strengthening and diagnostic technology evaluation. It works closely with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India. These testing kits will be deployed across public and private healthcare laboratories identified by the Indian Government to scale up access to COVID-19 testing.