Community kitchens rise up to the occasion

PRAYAGRAJ: In a bid to offer meals to migrant workers, poor and homeless during the lockdown, volunteers of the Om Namay Shiva – a religious and spiritual organisation which used to serve pilgrims during Kumbh, Ardh Kumbh and Magh Melas – has set up a community kitchen at Gau Ghat to cater to around 20,000 people daily.
Head of the organisation Prabhu Ji told TOI that a team of 30 volunteers has been engaged to prepare food packets for the migrants and homeless people.District and police officers would distribute these packets among the needy, he said adding that “on Monday, we prepared the meal for 4,000 people. They were served food packets in the morning and evening.”
From Tuesday, meal for 20,000 people would be prepared and for that, hi-tech machines have been brought for kneading flour and cutting vegetables, making the volunteers’ job a little easier.
The organisation used to serve around 50,000 pilgrims daily during Kumbh, Ardh Kumbh and at other religious gatherings. The organisation has brought two flour kneading and three vegetable cutting machines from Gujarat. Both the machines have been installed at its Gau ghat kitchen. A volunteer said, “Automatic hi-tech machines would make volunteers’ task a litter easier and we would be able to serve the needy.”
The organisation has also set up community kitchens in Lucknow and Kanpur. While organisation is preparing meal for 50,000 people in Kanpur, meal for 25,000 has been prepared by its volunteers in Lucknow.
Meanwhile, traders associated with Civil Lines Vyapaar Mandal distributed food packets among migrants and homeless people at Thornhill Road, Hanuman Mandir, Civil Lines and adjoining areas. A team of traders led by Sushil Kharbanda, president of the the Civil Lines Vyapaar Mandal distributed food packets in the morning and evening hours.
“We have set up a small kitchen to prepare meals and we are trying to reach out to the poor,” he added.
At the same time, many Samaritans are forgetting about the importance of social distancing while going around streets to distribute relief materials among those stranded because of the lockdown. With a vaccine or cure yet to be discovered for novel coronavirus, doctors have vehemently advocated that people practise social distancing to keep Covid-19 at bay.
At most shelters in the city, inmates can be seen sitting in close groups, right next to each other without maintaining the mandatory distance of at least a metre.
At shops too, residents are failing to stand apart in their hurry to buy essential commodities.
At KP community Centre on MG Road, workers who had come for a medical checkup being conducted by the administration, were seen sitting too close to each other on Monday, ignoring precautionary.
“One has to understand that helping the poor and others is a noble cause and the administration appreciates the Good Samaritans’ efforts, but residents have to ensure that they protect themselves as well as those who are stranded,” said Prayagraj district magistrate Bhanu Chandra Goswami.