KOCHI: On the lines of online food ordering and delivery platforms such as Swiggy and Zomato, the Kudumbashree District Mission, Ernakulam, on Monday launched its online kitchen called ‘Kudumbashree Kitchen’ at Kalamassery. Like Swiggy and Zomato, the food prepared by the Kudumbashree will be delivered through a mobile application called Annasree developed by Adebha Institute of Food Research and Hospitality Management (AIFRHM), Thrissur.
“AIFRHM provides both technical and marketing support to create Kudumbashree canteens and restaurants. They conduct training sessions in various topics including bulk cooking, crisis management, business promotion and accounting,” said Ragesh K R, assistant district mission coordinator. According to him, there is a huge demand for the food prepared by the Kudumbashree units in the district.
“Going online provides an opportunity for the unit members to cater to a even wider spectrum of customers,” he said. The online kitchen has been set up in association with the American India Foundation as per the directive of the Kudumbashree State Mission. Over 100 women from various Community Development Societies (CDS) in the district were selected for the purpose and given the necessary training.
According to district programme manager (marketing) Arun P R, of the 100, a selected few will be working with the online kitchen. “Since this is a trial period, the kitchen is operating with one administration staffer and two delivery persons,” he said. Once, the trial period is over and we gauge the market and the number of staff will be increased, he said.
“For the time being the sanctioned strength in the district is three office staff and four delivery personnel. The food being ordered through the app will be delivered within 8km to 10km circle in Kalamassery,” said Arun. The food prepared by six individual units and one group unit of the Kudumbashree will be sold via the online kitchen. “The units will prepare the food and deposit it with the central unit at Kalamassery. From here, it will be delivered as per orders,” he said.
According to Sujatha Velayudhan, Kalamassery CDS, the delivery staffer for the kitchen were selected from the Kudumbashree units at Choornikkara, Kalamassery East and West. “They underwent a 20-day training by the AIFRHM and will be paid a salary depending upon the orders delivered. It is Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000,” she said. There are also plans to have a tie-up with platforms like Swiggy and Zomato and it is expected to give the units much wider reach. At present, only lunch and dinner menus are on. “The initial menu of the online kitchen includes meals, biryani (chicken and beef), chappati, chicken curry, chicken fry, beef curry, beef fry and vegetable curry,” she said.