Indian Celebrity Chef Feeds Millions During Pandemic.
ANDERSON: India's Health Minister says Hindus can safely celebrate their faith and still be safe from the Coronavirus. India has just topped 7 million cases of COVID. As a major Hindu festival period approaches the Health Minister says there's no need for the religious to congregate in large numbers to prove their faith. The doctor said Lord Krishna's goal and the goal of everyone in country is to beat the virus and save humanity.</s>ANDERSON: With that goal of saving humanity it is, I mean, in mind, one Indian Chef who has cooked for celebrities and presidents is now providing millions of meals for those struggling in the man democratic. Vedika Sud tells us more about the man on a global delivery mission.</s>VEDIKA SUD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hope - for millions of India's underprivileged who have been struggling to survive the COVID-19 pandemic. This massive food drive is the brainchild of an Indian Chef Vikas Khanna. For the last six months Khanna has been implementing every step of the project from his home in New York City. After India implemented its first lock down in March Khanna donated to charity but images of Indians in need stayed with the chef who decided to take direct action.</s>VIKAS KHANNA, INDIAN CHEF: We started backing short listing different cities. So, on the room I had this wall where I put the name of the city and I start putting the name of the places where they need food. (</s>END VIDEO CLIP SUD: Khanna soon realizes managing logistics from over 7,000 miles away wasn't easy so he collaborated with India's National Disaster Response Force to deliver food and amenities to remote areas of the country. He says they distributed food to sex workers, seniors, HIV-AIDS patients, flood victims and migrant workers.</s>S. N. PRADHAN, DIRECTOR GENERAL, NATIONAL DISASTER RESPONSE FORCE: Even it was a one man show out there from there, I said OK, we can be your hands and ears and legs.</s>SUD: Khanna who cooked for President Obama in the White House is one of the first Indian to have been awarded a Michelin Star. He has written 35 books, including what's been called the world's most expensive cook book itself. He's also filmmaker but his mission to feed millions of his fellow Indians remains is closest to his heart.</s>KHANNA: Film starts here, it started here, and this was stopping the project. Brain was saying there are too many pending projects.</s>SUD: There are days when Khanna feels overwhelmed by the magnitude of the project. His mother back home in India doesn't let him give up.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I convinced him by saying that as you've got out of India you should do something for your country. Why not when everybody suffering?</s>SUD: The 48-year-old Indian says he was born with club feet. For 11 years he walked with the support of braces and then wooden shoes. For Khanna supporting millions of fellow Indians will be a bigger movement than the day he first ran. Vedika Sud, CNN, New Delhi.</s>ANDERSON: And with that, that's it from us for this evening. Thank you for joining us wherever you are in the world. It's a very good night from Abu Dhabi. Indeed, stay well.