Indian-American businesswoman participates in meeting with Kamala Harris

An Indian-American businesswoman, who imports goods and supports widowed women in India, has participated in a round table with Kamala Harris and asked the US Vice President to back a global plastic policy.

Lalitha Chittoor, the owner of Eco All Trading LLC, a small micro business involved in wholesale trading of sustainable products such as stainless steel, bamboo, birch wood attended the round table with Harris in Denver, Colorado on Tuesday along with her daughter.

Ms Harris brought up the administration’s climate change efforts and said a policy staffer would follow up with her. Ms Chittoor’s business, founded in 2019, is women-owned and imports goods from India and supports widowed women in India.

She told the round table that the small businesses were really part of the heartbeat of every community.

“Our small business leaders are not only business leaders, you are civic leaders, community leaders, role models,” she said.

“It is our small businesses that hire from the community, that uplift the community, that have regular customers who come in and you can recognize if they’re having a bad day and you already know what they want to they don’t even have to put in an order,” she said.

Ms Harris said those in need of assistance have been opening up their car trunks to pick up food boxes, but leave handwritten notes and sometimes a tip thanking the volunteers.

“These families who have nothing because they’ve lost so much, tipping the volunteers for their generosity and recognizing the dignity of their work,” she said.

Born in Chennai and a naturalised citizen of the US, Ms Chittoor started her business at the behest of her daughter. Her primary customers are restaurants, federal government, state government, school cafeterias, prison cafeterias, hospital cafeterias.

During the round table, Ms Chittoor asked Ms Harris to back a global plastic policy.