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Food outlet with inmates as cooks, this jailhouse rocks
While food will be prepared by its current prisoners in the jail kitchen, former inmates will not only man the outlet but also act as home delivery executives as the jail aspires to take the initiative online.
In what it claims to be a unique prisoner reform initiative, the Kanpur district jail has launched a food outlet that will be run by its current and former inmates, said its superintendent BN Pandey. The store was inaugurated by Kanpur MP Satyadev Pachauri on Sunday, and it started functioning a day later.
While food will be prepared by its current prisoners in the jail kitchen, former inmates will not only man the outlet but also act as home delivery executives as the jail aspires to take the initiative online.
On its first day, the outlet managed a sale of an impressive ₹5,500--most of it coming from people visiting their kith and kin lodged in the jail.
Tea, sold for ₹10 per cup, and espresso, sold for ₹20 per cup, made for the bulk of the revenue as three ex-inmates made and served them, and one handled the money.
The idea for the outlet was mooted by district magistrate Vishak G Iyer who was impressed by the culinary skills of inmates as they churned a variety of food items for the erstwhile jail canteen.
“We believe that the initiative will bring a change in the mindset of people behind bars. Also, it will send a message to them that the government is genuinely interested in their rehabilitation,” said Iyer, who provided government funds for the project.
It was decided that 10 undertrials/convicts and 10 former inmates be engaged in the initiative. “The number of prisoners may be increased later,” said Pandey.
What’s on the menu?
To begin with, the inmates have decided to serve only vegetarian food with a high sale value. The menu would be revised after the outlet makes its way to food aggregator platforms, Pandey said, adding talks with two major app-driven service providers were already in the final stages.
The project’s nodal officer, Anil Kumar, said the rates had been kept reasonable. “A thali (meal) of four rotis, two curries, dal, rice and salad is sold for ₹70. This is the costliest item on the menu,” said Kumar, adding samosa, noodles, bread-pakora, rajma-rice, kadhi-rice, vada-pav, chola-rice, puri-sabzi and mixed vegetable paratha would also be sold.
Prisoner-cooks to train under chefs
“All this is new for us. Once things settle then we will move on to accepting online orders, which we expect to do in a month or two. We’ve taken the necessary steps, and have even asked the companies to employ former prisoners as delivery agents,” he said, adding the inmates would be trained to better their culinary skills.
“Chefs from reputed institutes and hotels will train inmates to better their skills and add new items to the menu.”
The food joint will be managed by a prisoner welfare and rehabilitation cooperative society, which will have jail authorities as representatives on its board. A bank has been opened in the name of the society, and earnings from the outlet would be credited to this account.
Quality checks every day
To make sure that people get quality food at the outlet, a panel of the jail doctor and two jailors will approve the items every day. The jail authorities said they expected a booming business since the jail was in close proximity to the district court and the collectorate, where food is expensive.
