Varsity kitchen goes open-air to run on firewood for hostel food supply

Berhampur: Amid shortage of cooking gas supply, Berhampur University has switched to traditional firewood to run the messes to cater food to around 1,500 hostel inmates. The authorities have allowed the mess managers to cook food outside the hostel buildings."We have allowed the mess managers to prepare the food for hostel inmates by using firewood outside the hostel building so as not to disrupt the kitchens," said Geetanjali Dash, vice-chancellor, Berhampur University, on Saturday. The students are now preparing for examinations, they should not be disturbed by food supply crisis, she said. The mess managers are running the open kitchens at two locations by erecting temporary sheds. Earlier five messes, including three for girls, were running for inmates. A total of 1,487 boarders, including 896 girls, reside in 17 hostels located on the university campus. Ganeshwar Sethy, warden of the hostels, said though they switched to use firewood for preparation of food for hostel inmates, they did not change the menu of the lunch and dinner. The quantity and quality of the food will remain the same, while preparing the food on firewood," said Sethy, while supervising food preparation near the hostels."We require two commercial gas cylinders to run the messes every day. The supply, however, was disrupted for the past few days. We have requested the university authorities to permit the kitchen to be run on firewood. The kitchens started after procuring firewood from a forest depot," said Ranjan Kumar Sahu, a mess manager. He said the makeshift kitchens would be run till the supply of cooking gas is not streamlined. They have set up makeshift kitchens at two places near the girls' and boys' hostels, respectively, to prepare food centrally and then supply to different messes. "As they have covered sheds, there would be no problem to prepare foods in case of rain," he said. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with EId ul fitr 2026 wishes, messages and quotes !