In most homes, Sunday mornings unfold slowly, with a little extra sleep, a warm cup of chai and the day easing in. 

In Pooja and Dipesh Dedhia’s home in Mumbai, it begins in the dark.

By 4 am, their kitchen is already alive. Ingredients are measured, burners are on, and breakfast for over 100 people is being made. There is no rush or chaos, only a rhythm they have built over time. By the time the city begins to stir, their food is ready to be served.

For them, this isn’t just about cooking. It’s about showing up, every single week, for people who depend on it.

Through their Matoshreee Foundation, the couple has served over 15,000 meals to daily wage workers and others in need, many of whom return week after week for the food and for the certainty that someone will be there. 

And if there is one thing that defines their journey, it is that in nearly three years, they have not missed a single Sunday.

The personal reason behind their Sunday promise

Matoshreee Foundation is, at its core, a husband-and-wife-led mission to personally cook and serve food to those who need it most. 

Pooja, the co-founder, is a Mumbai-born chef and certified nutritionist. She balances her role as a head chef with raising two children in a joint family while also running a grassroots initiative that has quietly become a lifeline for many. 

Her husband, Dipesh Dedhia, a banker by profession and the founder of the Matoshreee Foundation, traces the idea back to something deeply personal.

“When I was born, I was very critical and needed blood urgently,” he shares. 

“Someone came forward to help, but we never knew who they were. Since then, I’ve always felt, I may not be able to reach that person, but I can keep doing good and reach others who need it.”

That thought stayed with him through the years — from college days filled with small social initiatives to a long-standing desire to build something of his own.

“I always wanted to start an NGO,” he says. “But I didn’t want to limit it to any one community or religion.”

He believes that kindness, whether it’s helping someone or simply being there for them, should come from a sense of humanity, not be limited by religion or community. By feeding people every Sunday, he feels he is contributing to humanity as a whole, not to any one group in particular.

After their marriage in May 2023, this idea resurfaced with clarity when Dipesh asked Pooja if they could finally start the Matoshreee Foundation. 

“He asked me, ‘What if we organise a breakfast bhandara(community meal) every Sunday morning?’” Pooja recalls. “And without hesitation, I said, let’s do it.”

What followed was simple but powerful. A WhatsApp message. A few social media posts. An idea shared........

© The Better India