KOCHI: When Advocate Majitha Abdul Majeed from Ponnani, Malappuram, felt she had little time to focus on work because of household responsibilities that included time spent in the kitchen, she thought of a creative solution. She got together with a few friends in the neighbourhood and put together a community kitchen. Now, more than 40 families in the area depend on the facility that eases the responsibilities of working parents and provides stable income to a group of cooks.
Majitha’s husband Khaleemudheen P K came to her help and they got a similar response from their family friends — including couple Ramesh and Rakhi (bank employees). Ramesh found a cook, Sundaran and his wife Priya started preparing breakfast and dishes for the two families. The small kitchen they started back in 2020 February, gave way to the concept of a community kitchen in Ponnani. The food was earlier priced at Rs 160 daily for a family of four, including delivery charges. The kitchen provides breakfast and curries for lunch.
“The idea was to take away the burden of cooking from the women of the house and make it an accountable, quantifiable job. Now, the women who are part of this concept have more productive time, and those who are toiling in the kitchen are getting paid. This concept took off in other districts too. We are now concentrating on 10 family kitchens. Instead of commercialising the concept, we are focusing on quality and hygiene of the food prepared,” Majitha said.
Inspired by the community kitchen in Ponnani, Girija Parvathy, a retired teacher in Balussery also gathered like-minded women in the area - Lousy, a librarian, teachers Sindhu, Sakkeena, Vasantha and Bincy and Preetha, Shalu and Vilasini - and started a similar facility. Asya, a caterer, became their cook. She is assisted by Padmini for daily work.
“The kitchen works seven days a week and food is delivered according to a fixed menu. We started in October 2021, and are now serving 10 families. We are not planning to increase the number of customers since we are more concerned about the quality. We divide the duties among ourselves and rotate the duties every month,” said Girija.