KOCHI: The Kochi Corporation’s ‘Meal at Rs 10’ has received an overwhelming response from people. The review of the Janakeeya hotel has revealed that a 10,350 people were served food from the “Samrudhi at Kochi’ hotel in the last five days. Owing to huge response to ‘Hunger-Free Kochi’ project, the corporation plans to expand its service to serve breakfast and dinner at a feasible rate by next month.
The ‘Hunger-Free Kochi’ project was announced in last year’s budget. “The corporation has not spent any amount from its fund. Whatever has been spent was from the contributions of individuals, government subsidies and corporate social responsibility funds, “ said Mayor M Anilkumar.
“A total of 10,350 meals were served from the Janakeeya hotel in the last five days. The initiative got an immense response, more than we expected, “Anilkumar said. Following the good response from everyone, the mayor received various enquiries from people asking for account details to donate to this noble cause of ‘Hunger-free Kochi’. Contributions to the Hunger-Free Kochi project can be made to the account number 11530200024910 with the Federal Bank, Ernakulam South. The IFSC code of the account is FDRL0001153 and the name of the dedicated account is Samridhi @ Kochi.
Apart from providing meals at Rs 10 to the underprivileged, the project aims at women’s empowerment.
At present, over 13 women are working at Samruddhi. More women from the Adebha Institute of Food Research and Hospitality Management, an accredited agency of Kudumbashree under the District Mission, are given training as hotel staff.
With more staff, the corporation plans to include breakfast and dinner at the hotel at a feasible rate, hopefully by next month,” the mayor said.