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Pune police tie up with NGO’s to set up central kitchen to feed needy
According to police, this move will help the NGO’s to distribute food to the needy without the hassles of volunteers running from pillar to posts during the time of lockdown
The Pune Police in association with 160 non-government organisation (NGO’s) and Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has set up a central kitchen to cook food for at least 40,000 people in the city.
According to police, this move will help the NGO’s to distribute food to the needy without the hassles of volunteers running from pillar to posts during the time of lockdown.
Commissioner of police K Venkatesham, said, “We want to reduce the number of volunteers out on the streets and we are taking the help of the NGO’s to provide us with the raw material and the cooked food which we will distribute using the police force.”
“We have set up a social policing cell at the commissioner’s office where we have three officers and 20 constables handling the phone calls from people who need food,” he said.
He also said that there are five vehicles specially allotted for collecting the food and distributing in five zones of the city.
Samairah and Vaishali Patkar who have been co-ordinating for many volunteer groups discussed the issue with the commissioner of police K Venkatesham and thus it was decided to establish a central kitchen.
“The lockdown imposed due to Covid-19 (coronavirus) has impacted the labourers, needy and those in hostels and through this central kitchen may can be feed,” said Samairah.
“IRCTC was already running the kitchen, hence we thought of using their platform to help make more cooked meals and serve the needy. We also realised that there was duplication of ration or the essential raw materials and people were stocking that instead of using it,” said Vaishali, hence the team derived at opting for cooked meals for the needy across the city.
The staff strength at the IRCTC kitchen is 25 people working in a 2,000 sq ft kitchen. Piyush Farkande, chief supervisor, IRCTC, said, “The lockdown has drastically impacted livelihood patterns, with the poor struggling to even get daily meals. We provide bulk cooked food in paper plates, which is collected by volunteers from various NGO’s.”
According to PI Prakash Khandekar who is part of the social policing cell, “There are many people in need of food in areas like Kondhwa, Katraj Ambegaon, Bhosari, Chakan, Wagholi, Parvati and Dhanori, where our vehicles will take the food and we will serve them.”
Samairah said, “We have received donations from NGOs like Hope for Children foundation, an NRI PhD Student with her group has raised Rs 2 lakh and Mahindra and Mahindra company Chakan has donated Rs 5 lakh so far for the cause.”
