As India reels under second covid wave, companies re-start community kitchens

Chennai: To blunt the impact of the virulent second Covid wave, partially, companies are reopening community kitchens, by distributing food packets, and feeding those who are displaced by the pandemic.

Software firm Zoho is currently distributing around 6000 food packets (cooked in their Chennai and Tenkasi office kitchens) to villages around Chennai and Tenkasi and plans to scale to 17000 in a few days.

Sridhar Vembu, founder and CEO of Zoho said the idea is to support the people impacted by the second wave and going hungry. “We have restarted our kitchens, delivering meals in Guduvanchery (Chennai), Tenkasi and soon Gudalur in Theni- the places where we have good kitchen facilities,” Vembu tweeted. “We are also working with various voluntary organizations to help with their own food distribution efforts,” he added. For this initiative, Zoho has identified a team of around 50 people who have gone through basic health checks. “The whole team is screened daily; managers train the team and ensure that the safety protocols are being adhered to by everyone,” a Zoho official said. Springworks, a tech product startup based in Bengaluru, is providing freshly cooked food to daily wage labourers and their families in the city using their office kitchen. Starting off by serving over 200 labourers and their families-some of the people hardest hit due to Covid-19 and lockdowns — the initiative is being driven from the startup’s own funds and is run by employees with logistical support being taken care by NGO Robinhood Army. A team of employees and two cooks who live on the office premises drive the initiative. However, since Springworks founder and CEO Kartik Mandaville tweeted about their community kitchen four days back, donations have also started pouring in from people who wish to contribute by supplying grocery and provisions like rice etc for the kitchen. “We have received almost 700 kgs of rice since the donations started coming. Thanks to all the donations, we are now serving twice a day, around 400+ meals across morning and afternoon,” Mandaville said. Even with the current lockdown in Bengaluru, the team is looking at finishing distributions by 10 am in the morning. While some others are supporting feeding activities financially. Mid-tier software firm GAVS Tech, is supporting meals for Covid patients in Chennai’s Voluntary Health Services (VHS), a community hospital which mostly treats poor patients. With plans in place to contribute around Rs 5 lakh for the food cost currently, the company plans to scale this and do it for as long as the current crisis goes on.