The Community Kitchen Project

It all started in the kitchen, where my mother and I, per usual, were cooking food for the family. Spontaneously, we decided to cook twice the portion, pack it and send it to the security guards of our apartment complex.

One thing led to another, and it soon became somewhat of an informal routine. We would cook extra, and send it to them.

One day, however, while passing out food to the guards, I spotted a couple of children across the street, hungrily eyeing the food. We were separated by a gate, and I didn’t have enough food, so I returned upstairs, but the incident stuck with me.

The next week, I decided to bring a potful for food downstairs and give it to the children. It was hot and summertime, so we bought some cold juice packets too. I had estimated we would serve about 4-5 children, but what happened next surmounted my presumption.

When I crossed the street to give them food, I noticed more and more children emerging from a dilapidated house nearby. What happened next is honestly a blur. An avalanche of children made a beeline for the open container, grabbing as much food as they possibly could and shoving each other around.

I can truly say that incident will forever remain in my heart. The next week, we began cooking a lot more and routinely sending it to both the children and the guards.

This ritual lasted for about 3 odd years, before the pandemic hit.

India’s population was left devastated by COVID-19, and we soon realised that our weekend food packets were not enough. After looking around the neighbourhood for opportunities to volunteer, we found an old age home for old women who were either widows or abandoned by their children. With food being as scarce as it was during the time, they could hardly afford a meal a day.

So we got to work! Over the summer, I learnt how to cook large rice dishes from my mom, and once I had that accomplished, I set about making meals for all of the 30 senior citizens in the old age home daily.

It was definitely challenging, cooking 30 large meals every single day, but in an odd way, it changed me as a person. I found myself paying more attention to the sent quality of food than I would my own, found myself grinning every time I packed the rice. All in all, it was one of my favourite projects to do, and I continue to cook and send those meals daily to this day.