The District Kudumbashree Mission (DKM) is gearing up to convert its entire network of 250-odd hotels, canteens, and catering units run by their members into community kitchens in the comings days. It is in keeping with the State government motto that none should go hungry during the prolonged national lockdown.
Kudumbashree runs 42 canteens, 86 hotels, and 107 catering units in the district, and they have expressed willingness to be part of the proposed community kitchen programme.
DKM is in the process of drawing up a detailed action plan on running community kitchens without compromising on the safety of its members.
₹23 crore allocated
The State government has allocated ₹23 crore for setting up community kitchens, which will be divided among districts with each unit to be given a revolving fund not exceeding ₹50,000. DKM is looking at taking over marriage auditoriums, closed hotels, and such other facilities for running community kitchens, which are looking at serving food to up to 1,000 people a day. A day after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan evolved the concept of community kitchens, DKM on Thursday opened five such kitchens on a small scale for distributing food packets in Chengamanad, Kottuvally and Vengola panchayats while diverting resources to a canteen in Paravur block and an already functional Kudumbashree people’s eatery in Thripunithura.
“We will scale up the number of community kitchens and volume of food being served through them in association with local bodies in the coming days. An understanding has been reached to make rice available for such kitchens through ration shops and other provisions from Supplyco at wholesale prices,” said T.P. Geevarghese, district mission coordinator.
Kudumbashree plans to sell food packets at the rate of ₹20 each out of which ₹10 will be reimbursed by the State government as subsidy. The larger the volume of food packets being sold the better will be the margin for the units.
Free meals
Besides, free meals will be given to migrant workers, quarantined people, and the jobless, the expenses of which will be reimbursed by the local bodies concerned.
