This Ramadan 2026, Join Anas Tanwir’s ‘Iftar4All’ to Help Serve Free Meals in Your City

Key facts

• Iftar4All is a citizen-led effort started in 2017 by Anas Tanwir and team to serve iftar meals outside hospitals, railway stations and public spaces during Ramadan.

• The initiative now operates across cities including Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. You can reach out to join a distribution near you.

• You can volunteer your time or even explore starting a chapter in your own city by connecting directly with the team.

As the sun begins to dip during Ramadan, small groups of volunteers gather outside hospitals, near railway stations, under flyovers and along pavements. They come carrying cartons filled with dates, fruit, pakoras (fritters), roasted chana (gram), and juice. 

Then, people slowly begin to stand in line. A hospital attendant holding medical papers steps forward. A daily-wage worker joins after finishing a long shift. Someone who has been sitting on the pavement for hours moves closer once they understand that meals are being handed out. Each person receives a packet. A brief word is exchanged. The next person steps ahead.

This scene plays out across cities every year through Iftar4All.

If you are reading this and imagining one of these spots in your own city, you can choose to be present there this Ramadan. The volunteers are always looking for more hands to help with distribution, and reaching out is the first step.

Iftar4All is an interfaith initiative where people of all backgrounds come together to serve during Ramadan. Photograph: (@Iftar4All/X)

An idea that began around a table

Iftar4All was co-founded in 2017 by advocate-on-record at the Supreme Court Anas Tanwir, researcher Sanobar Fatma, and senior advocate Sanjay Hegde. The idea came from a conversation about sharing meals and opening one’s table to others.

Tanwir remembers Hegde speaking about the spirit of Thanksgiving and how a stranger can sit at your table without having to explain themselves. “He spoke about the spirit of Thanksgiving, that any stranger can come and eat at your table,” Tanwir says. “In India, there is a long-standing tradition of sharing food openly, of welcoming anyone to join your meal. I grew up seeing that as well.”

That conversation stayed with them. They decided to extend the table outward and carry food into public spaces where people were already waiting. Instead of limiting the meal to familiar circles, they chose hospital gates, railway stations and neighbourhood corners.

If that idea speaks to you, this is the moment to act on it. You can message the Iftar4All team and ask how you can join the next distribution in your area. A simple message can connect you to a local chapter.

The night outside AIIMS

Their first distribution took place outside the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi. Around 800 food packets were prepared, and the volunteers believed this was a generous number.

But the food wasn’t enough.

“Even after all 800 packets were handed out, the line remained just as long.” Tanwir recalls. 

Many in that line were relatives who had travelled from smaller towns for medical treatment. They were staying near the hospital for days at a time. Others were workers managing tight budgets while supporting family members.

That evening made it clear that this effort needed to continue beyond one day.

When you think about that hospital entrance and the people waiting there, you begin to understand why every additional volunteer matters. If you have an evening free, you can stand beside the team and help move that line forward.

The initiative is active across several Indian cities, from Delhi and Lucknow to Mumbai and Hyderabad. Photograph: (@Iftar4All/X)

‘We did not advertise this’

After the early distributions, people from other cities began reaching out. They had seen the model and wanted to organise similar efforts in their own communities.

“We did not advertise this,” Tanwir says. “It gained momentum through like-minded people.”

When asked how the initiative grew, Tanwir often quotes a couplet by poet Majrooh Sultanpuri: “Main akela hi chala tha jaanib-e-manzil magar, log saath aate gaye aur kaarvan banta gaya (I set out alone towards the destination, but people kept joining, and a caravan was formed.)”

Someone in Lucknow asked how to begin. A group in Mumbai requested guidance on coordinating volunteers. Others contributed funds and ingredients. Over time, chapters were set up in cities including Lucknow, Guwahati, Mumbai, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, and Hyderabad.

Each chapter follows the same basic process. Volunteers plan the menu, prepare and package the food, identify distribution points, and return the next day if people gather again.

If there is a chapter in your city, you can reach out directly to the team and ask how to be part of the preparation or distribution. If there is none yet, your message could begin that conversation.

Iftar4All provides simple, nutritious iftar meals to people who cannot afford food at the end of a long day. Photograph: (@Iftar4All/X)

Responding to real needs

As Iftar4All spread, volunteers adjusted their efforts according to local situations.

In 2018, the team visited Lucknow’s Aastha Geriatric Hospital & Hospice during Eid and carried sugar-free sevaiyanfor elderly residents who needed specific dietary care.  In 2019, the international programme led by Fatma began by distributing food at an internally displaced persons camp in Abuja, Nigeria.