Rupandehi, April 16 : A food bank has been established at Tilottama municipality of Rupandehi district to help needy people during the time of lockdown. As per the concept of the food bank, industrialists, business people, locals or any other can deposit foodstuffs voluntarily.    
Mayor Basudev Ghimire said that the donors can offer rice, pulse, salt, cooking oil and other stuffs.    
The central office of the food bank would be at the municipality office while ward offices at the branch offices.    
The concept of food bank was introduced to solicit help from different people in the community for collecting foodstuffs and assist the needy ones. It was set up to integrate the collection of foods from those having sufficient foodstuffs but not money, officials said. The municipality has expected huge amount of rice collection in the food bank.    
The foodstuffs collected in the bank would be distributed to the people in need through local community-based organizations.    
Earlier, the municipality had opened a bank account to collect the fund to help the people in crisis during the lockdown imposed by the government for the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.