Amid the nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic, cloud kitchens turn into community kitchens to feed the poor. In Gurugram, posh restaurants and five-star hotels are doubling as emergency kitchens to feed the underprivileged. Around 1225 community kitchens are set up across 14 districts in Kerala.
Kerala state-run community kitchens are cooking and distributing over 2.5 to 2.8 lakh food packets daily to those in need. Community kitchens set up across the country to cater to the needs of the underprivileged. This definitely proves that humanity will rise above any situation.
Cloud Kitchens Transform Into Community Kitchens
Cloud kitchens are converting into community kitchens to cook meals for the needy amid the pandemic. These are kitchens which have only takeaway and no dine-in facilities. Rajesh Sawhney, co-founder of InnerChef, a cloud kitchen platform states to Livemint that the poorest must be fed.
He adds that the government must enable cloud kitchens to be transformed into community kitchens. Currently, InnerChef offers all its kitchen on a non-profit basis to authorities in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Gurugram and Noida.
Sawhney proposes a public-private partnership (PPP). He states that the government can give them ration. And his staff can cook meals like khichdi, dal, roti and sabzi. The police can pick up these and distribute them to needy. This model is workable during the lockdown. Yet, Rajesh Sawhney urges the government to pay the salary of the kitchen staff.
FoodCloud Serves 100 Meals A Day To Needy In Delhi
Similarly, co-founder and CEO of FoodCloud, Vedant Kanoi is also extending a helping hand to the Delhi government. He is doing this through his platform of home chefs, who prepare meals for daily wagers and others. Furthermore, FoodCloud is a marketplace for home-cooked food with 4500 verified home chefs in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.
There are more than 350 FSSAI-registered home chefs registered with Food Cloud in Delhi-NCR. FoodCloud is able to provide more than 100 meals a day in the capital. The cloud kitchen platform delivers ingredients to the home chefs. Then, delivery boys pick up the food when its ready. This gets distributed where required.
Wholesome meals like khichri, chole chawal and rajma chawal is fed to the poor. And like Rajesh Sawhney, Delhi-based Vedant Kanoi also hopes that the government will cover a part of the costs. This must be done to ensure timely payment of home chefs.
Also Read: 5 Ways Restaurants Around The World Are Getting Social Distancing Right
33 Lakh Food Packets Distributed By Community Kitchens In Kerala
The Kerala government reveals that community kitchens will be set up in every panchayat. People under home quarantine and in hospitals are delivered food. Currently, kitchens are run by local self-government bodies in association with Kerala’s poverty-alleviating, Kudumbashree project involving women.
The community kitchens distributed around 33 lakh food packets as on May 22. Food prepared from 1255 kitchen, set up across 14 districts in Kerala were given to the needy. Accordingly, these kitchens mainly cater to the marginalized. This includes labourers, homeless people, migrants and the destitute rehabilitated under the Ashraya integrated project.
Five-Star Hotels & Posh Restaurants In Gurugram Turn Into Emergency Kitchens
When it comes to Gurugram, posh restaurants and five-star hotels convert their kitchens to serve the community. Establishments in party hubs like Sector 29, Cyber Hub and DLF are cooking meals for 75,000 people daily. Sikh Community Delivers Over 1000 Pizzas To Frontline Workers
Gurugram Deputy Commissioner Amit Khatri states to The Week, “Our key aim is to ensure nobody goes without two square meals a day. We have no screening, no parameters. Anybody who seeks food is provided the same by us. These posh establishments have put their chefs and kitchen staff on work, preparing balanced meals under specified sanitised conditions mandated by us. We, on an average, are feeding 75,000 people through these kitchens, and various invisible endeavours from local councillors and community associations too are keeping the city going.”
Moreover, other famous eateries in Gurugram like ‘Farzi Cafe’, ‘Prankster’ and even ‘Oberoi’ have also joined this cause. Eateries, cloud kitchens have converted into community kitchens to feed the underprivileged in the country. This is indeed heart touching. Did you know Chef Vikas Khanna Named A Dish After Sonu Sood’s Hometown?