Founded by Chitresh Sinha in 2019, The Plated Project is a business that strives to solve the hunger crisis in India
Chitresh Sinha, founder, The Plated Project
Image: Nayan Shah for Forbes India
In the initial days of the Covid-19 pandemic, an idea was taking shape in Chitresh Sinha’s mind; an idea that could make money, while taking small steps in solving the country’s hunger crisis. Sinha wanted to solve the problem of hunger creatively. Little did he know that his idea, designed to be an experiment, will become an independent, stand-alone impact business in the following four months.
Working as a brand strategist and consultant at Chlorophyll Brand & Communications Consultancy, after pursuing a degree in engineering and an MBA, Sinha, 38, started The Plated Project as a digital, direct-to-consumer business to sell decorative plates.
An ad on Instagram is how it all began. Sinha was scrolling through Instagram, and chanced upon an ad that said, ‘Hunger kills more people each year than Aids, malaria and terrorism combined’ (which stands true, as per UN’s World Food Programme). To Sinha, this was hard-hitting. After doing some research, he found that about 82 percent of hungry people live in countries with food surpluses, not food shortages.
With a mission to raise funds and awareness to end hunger, Sinha started brainstorming on creative ways to make an impact. In one such brainstorming session, along with a few friends who are now part of The Plated Project team, an idea struck—‘Buy a plate, fill a plate’—and thus began the journey of using art to address hunger.