Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: foodpanda, Pakistan’s leading online food delivery platform, has always been a step ahead to uplift home-based businesses in the country. Just recently, the photo of a young boy selling macaroni on the streets of Islamabad went viral on the internet. The young chef named Zaheer has been taken on-board by foodpanda and is now a part of their homechef family.
Twenty year old Zaheer is the oldest of the four siblings and he used to study at Islamabad College for Boys, however, due to financial constraints he had to drop out for enrolment in a private program. His father works as a clerk at a bank and is earning 25,000 per month.
Zaheer, in order to support his father, has been on the job hunt for a while and has been struggling especially due to the onset of Covid two years back. He has been trying to explore opportunities in various part time roles and has been offered incomes as low as 4,000 to 5,000 per month. Despite discouragement from his friends and relatives against starting something of his own, he thought of selling Macaroni cooked by his Mom and Sister. Since he could not afford to rent out a shop he did so by selling out of his car. foodpanda, always on the lookout for such dedicated small scale entrepreneurs, took on-board Zaheer as their newest homechef and his kitchen is now live on the app.
While sharing his response when asked about this opportunity, Zaheer said, “I have been selling macaroni on the streets of Islamabad for some time now. It was a testing period for me and taught me a lot of lessons. Having went through the tough times, I am extremely grateful to foodpanda to give me an online platform where I can secure orders while staying at home. The opportunities are numerous and I’m excited to start this new phase of my business.”