Robin Hood Army

A volunteer-driven, zero-funds organization gathering surplus food from restaurants, events, and homes to serve people in need. They don’t accept money, just time and food.

It launched in August 2014 in Delhi, modeled after Portugal’s Re-Food program.

Fully decentralized, hyper-local chapters run by volunteers (“Robins”) who coordinate using social media and WhatsApp. They only distribute food they'd consider fit to eat themselves.

Reddit volunteers note:

“RHA is entirely decentralized … every chapter maintains WhatsApp groups … if the food is not fit for the volunteers to eat, then it’s not fit for distributing.”

Operating in India and 13+ countries, with operations across hundreds of cities. Over 100 million meals served by over 200,000 volunteers.

No cash donations: only food or volunteer time.
Volunteer-led hyper-local distribution.
Food must be edible for volunteers.
Operate with zero funds or formal offices.

Volunteers frequently partner with weddings, restaurants, and local community events to collect surplus. In some drives, they’ve fed hundreds to thousands, for example, a wedding pickup that served 990 people.

They’ve also taken on broader CSR-like campaigns: water supplies during droughts, blankets, education, even blood drives in some chapters.