THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : It’s time to say goodbye to hotels and junk food, and savour traditional home-made Malayalee lunch with rice, pulissery, sambar, aviyal, thoran and the unavoidable pickle. Like Mumbai’s Dabbawalas dressed in white and wearing a Gandhi cap delivering home-cooked food to thousands of people, Kerala’s own women empowerment community, Kudumbashree, has started ‘Lunch Bell,’ an innovative venture to deliver homemade food to government offices, banks and private institutions.
Through the Lunch Bell, which officially started on Wednesday, the Kudumbashree workers sporting green T-shirts and pink caps will deliver food in tiffin boxes and take them back later in the day.
On Wednesday, about a hundred individuals who had booked the lunch were served with homemade meals. Booking lunch through Lunch Bell is simple as one has to download the app ‘Pocketmart.’ The orders will be taken till 7 am every day. By 10.30 am -12 noon, the delivery women will despatch the lunch boxes to each table. The lunch box will be in the form of a thali with different dishes for keeping each food item. The empty boxes will be collected between 2.30 and 3 pm.
The vegetarian lunch includes rice, pulissery, sambar, two more curries, a thoran and aviyal or theeyal. The vegetarian lunch costs only Rs 60.
The non-vegetarian meal includes a fish curry and fried egg which will be priced at Rs 99. “We intend to provide good, hygienic meals to working men and women at an affordable price,” Kudumbashree Executive Director Jaffer Malik told TNIE.
“Now we are delivering food at Statue Junction where the Secretariat and many government and private offices are situated. Lunch is distributed at LMS, and Vikas Bhavan, Pattom. Right now we are taking only 200 orders per day. By next week it will be increased to 500. At the next level, within six months, Kudumbashree will implement the Lunch Bell programme in all major cities and municipalities, including Kochi. Demand has already come from Thrissur,” he said.
A central kitchen has been established in Parottukonam in Thiruvananthapuram to cook the meals. It has 10 workers and supporting staff to pack tiffin. “Now the delivery is done within a 2 km-radius of Secretariat, Vikas Bhavan, and Pattom.
The main feature is the three-level washing to keep the tiffin hygienic. If someone wants a particular tiffin, we will customise it”, Kudumbashree Tiffin Institute CEO Ajaya Kumar K P told TNIE.
The Kudumbashree has provided a large bag to carry the tiffin boxes to delivery points in a van. And from there the delivery women will take the tiffin to the destinations. Kudumbashree is also trying to get an entry into Technopark where a huge potential awaits it.
Kerala’s own Dabbawalas
Like Mumbai’s Dabbawalas dressed in white and wearing a Gandhi cap delivering home-cooked food to thousands of people, Kerala’s Kudumbashree, has started ‘Lunch Bell,’ to deliver homemade food to government offices and banks.
100 served homemade meals
On Wednesday, about a hundred individuals who had booked the lunch were served with homemade meals. Booking lunch through Lunch Bell is simple as one has to download the app ‘Pocketmart.’