Telangana American Telugu Association (T.A.T.A) Organized holiday food/clothing/toy drive in the Tri-State area (NJ, PA & DE)
Philadelphia, December 14, 2016: Telangana American Telugu association (T.A.T.A), a national non-profit organization, inspired telanganites in the US Tristate area (PA, NJ &DE) with the words of Shri Mahatma Gandhi, “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread,” to donate food, and especially baby food, toys and clothes to Beacon hope Inc, food pantry in New Jersey which serves thousands of homeless people in a week. There was a huge response by the Telangana Telugu community and this food drive was initiated by the Dr. Rama Reddy Malladi, Board of director T.A.T.A. and took it forward by the RVPs Dhanaraj Seri(NJ), Prasad Kunarapu(PA) and Venu Telangana(DE). All together in Tristate more than 16 trucks with more than 25K pounds of canned food, more than 5K pounds of baby food, winter clothing like jackets and comforters, plenty of toys and many appliances like baby strollers, car seats, televisions, heaters, microwaves etc were collected.
Dr. Pailla Mala Reddy, advisory committee chair of T.A.T.A and great Philanthropist from New York, thanked the community for the overwhelming support. He spoke about the Telangana culture and heritage, noting with pride that “if you visit a home in Telangana, they first offer you food”. He also added that he grew up in an agriculture family and knew the value of food and hunger. Smt. Jhansi Reddy, President of T.A.T.A said that “being a human being we have every second to help others,” and that this kind of holiday food drive is not only useful to those in need, but also inspires many minds for great causes. Mr. Mahendar Reddy Musuku, President-elect of T.A.T.A encouraged this donation event with his dynamic slogans “Strike a gusher of compassion, feed the hungry” and “Be the richest by taking care of someone else’s meal”. He always offers inspiring words to the people around him.
Dr.Mohan Patlolla, T.A.T.A advisory council member sent a message to the other state T.A.T.A members that the Tri-state area food drive inspired many other members all over the nation, and they requested drives to be conducted at different locations. Mr. Ramesh Chandra, National Co-Ordinator of T.A.T.A said ” All the Tristate members of the T.A.T.A did an endless job for this food drive and made every effort to raise funds to buy fresh and baby food. And also Santhosh Patoori, Internal affairs co-ordinator T.A.T.A added to the crowd that Dr. Rama Malladi made countless calls to co-ordinate all the regional vice presidents and regional coordinators to make this event very successful”. Mr. Srinivas Reddy Anugu (EVP) responded over the phone, he is very much inspired by this food drive and wants to take it forward to the other states and soon come up with a plan to organize food donations in Washington DC area.
Beacon hope Inc, New Jersey thanked T.A.T.A for their great generosity and for choosing to help them fight hunger in great way. In this successful event, T.A.T.A crew Suresh Venkannagari(BOD), SC’s: Prashanth Vemu, Venkat, Sudheer, Baswa, Bindu Madiraju, Rajya Lakshmi, Ravi, Bhaskar and Satya; RC’s: LN Reddy Donthireddy, Ramana Kotha, Sashi Kasira, Bhaskar Pinna, Vamshi Gullapally, Srinivas Reddy, Prithvi Chinthareddy, Gangadhar, Shyam, Saritha Komatireddy Keerthi Reddy, Sushanth and Sridhar participated with great interest and enthusiasm.
