MAYILADUTHURAI: A town panchayat in Mayiladuthurai-Nagapattinam district is encouraging people to stay home by conducting cooking contests for residents and awarding them prizes. Vaitheeswarankoil town panchayat came up with the idea and started a daily contest - 'Healthy Food Chef of the Town' - for 2,200 households. "The objective of the contests is to encourage nutritious cooking among families in Vaitheeswarankoil town panchayat. The contest is open tor men on Sundays and women on the other days. Participants should upload pictures of their preparations, cooking and presentation on Facebook," said K Kuhan, executive officer, Vaitheeswarankoil town panchayat.
The administration uploads the contest post on its Facebook page managed by the executive officer. It also shares recipes with residents on Facebook. The contest requires participants to share the post on their Facebook profiles and then upload the pictures of the ingredients, cooking and final presentation in the comment threads of the administrator's post and under their timeline. "We thought our residents should consume food with more vitamins and add ingredients with anti-allergic and antibacterial characteristics at this time. Women usually cook on weekdays and the men would be at home on Sundays. We want to involve them as well. We ensured men also cooked as we made it mandatory for them to upload pictures," said Kuhan.
The town panchayat's idea has worked as over 50 men took part in the contest and swamped the page with pictures of their participation on Sunday. Rasam was the item on Sunday. Vaitheeswarankoil town panchayat stated all new participants would get small gifts like gas stove lighters, knives, and torches. Regular participants would get prizes such as pressure cookers and steam iron boxes.
Residents on Facebook lauded the idea and initiative. "I participated in the contest from Singapore. I thank and appreciate the town panchayat for creating awareness of nutritious and healthy food," wrote Vaitheeswarankoil resident Manikandan, who works in Singapore. "The contest is a chance for everyone to know one another. We can have a better understanding of healthy boundaries, family patterns and dynamics. It enhances communication, reduces conflict and increases anger management skills," wrote psychologist Lavanya Nila, from Vaitheeswarankoil.
Kuhan took over as executive officer two months ago. Vaitheeswarankoil town panchayat was among the first to introduce doorstep delivery of essentials during the lockdown.