A Canberra family with huge hearts have been preparing thousands of meals a day for people struggling in the latest Covid lockdown.
Garry Malhotra said he first put a call out on social media to offer meals to struggling people when he was lying in hospital recovering from appendix surgery.
He has since received a wave of messages, and his extended family have been busy cooking and delivering food every night.
Mr Malhotra said he was genuinely surprised by the response.
"People are just screaming to get food. I didn't expect that [I'd] be getting many requests. I'm very shocked," he told The Canberra Times.
"There are really desperate people out there."
Mr Malhotra said most of the recipients of his family's meals were elderly people who were unable to shop or cook on their own.
He said they had delivered 1200 meals on Sunday night, and will start delivering 2000 a day from Tuesday.
Mr Malhotra is general manager of course provider AIM Health and Sciences, and he and his family use the training kitchen to prep the meals.
There are two different options a day, from a range including steamed rice with fish, salmon and prawn or creamy chicken pasta.
The family said they are funding the meals themselves, and believe they have enough money left to provide meals for another few weeks.
Mr Malhotra said their biggest impediment to continuing was buying enough stock, as they had to shop around just to get enough food.
"We are just running around getting few kilos of stuff from one shop and then we can't get stock [because of] panic buying," he said.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr has pledged to partner with local services to give vulnerable people free food and essential items.
ACT residents can call VolunteeringACT on 1800 43 11 33 to be given groceries.
Callers are linked with a staff member from Volunteering ACT who places an order on their behalf, and then a member of the ACT Emergency Services Agency will collect and deliver the order.
Mr Malhotra said he was considering setting up a charity to accept financial donations, but would not accept money before there was a proper process in place.
