Kerala’s Community Kitchens Serve 2.75 Lakh Packets a Day

KOCHI:
Completing a fortnight’s operation, community kitchens in Kerala have risen in capacity to cook and distribute 2.5 lakh to 2.8 lakh food packets every day amid the corona-time lockdown.

Maintaining social distancing that is essential to avert any spread of the deadly Covid virus, the volunteers are busy with their daily service at such cookhouses that total 1,255 across the state’s 14 districts. Of these, 179 function under municipal corporations.

Announced by the government as a mission to ensure hunger-free life till a relaxation in public movement, the community kitchens chiefly cater to the weaker sections including migrant labourers, homeless people and the destitute rehabilitated under the Ashraya integrated project. A huge portion of the food packets is being given free of cost.

The kitchens are being run by the local self-governing bodies in association with the state’s poverty-alleviating Kudumbashree project involving women. Cooperative societies and voluntary organisations also form part of the all-Kerala mission, whose army of volunteers called the Arogya Sena (Health Army) work as members of local WhatsApp groups.

Till Friday afternoon, community kitchens have cooked and distributed 33 lakh food packets. The first set of such kitchens began functioning on March 26, a day after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced the plan to provide free packets for the needy at their doorsteps. The other sections of the public, too, can access the food by paying Rs 20 per packet (plus Rs 5 for delivery).

With civic bodies directly responsible in the management of the community kitchens, the groceries are being provided by the state civil supplies department. “Every panchayat (Kerala has 941 in total) will have a phone number to which calls can be made to avail the food from the nearest community kitchen,” according to the CM. “None should go hungry.”

Rising to the occasion, Kudumbashree has begun opening more number of its trademark Janakeeya hotels (people’s restaurants). Today, 238 of them are serving budget meals. A pack of rice, with two dishes and a pickle, is being delivered at home for those making advance booking. “Going by the budget allocation for the current (2020-21) fiscal, we had anyway plans to open such eating joints serving meals for Rs 25. Owing to the lockdown, we have brought the price down to Rs 20,” says S Harikishore, Director of the Kudumbashree, which has been granted Rs 23.64 crore for the mission.

The community kitchens are also preparing breakfast and supper. While dosa/idli with sambar form the morning food, it is chappati-curry (vegetable) being prepared as night food. These cost between Rs 20 and Rs 30.

Authorities ensure that the community work no way upsets the implementation of social distancing, which is essential to check any spread of Covid. The cooking personnel and those assisting them maintain the requisite gap while working. Extra care is taken to guard against any transmission of the virus and ensure that none is its possible carrier.

The districts with most number of community kitchens are Ernakulam, Malappuram, Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur.