How meals were ever ready for the flood-hit and volunteers

An army marches on its stomach and so does an army of volunteers and those living at relief camps too. Over the past one week, residents, restaurants, residential associations and home chefs came together to supply food to relief camps and collection centres. And, no, too many cooks did not spoil the broth. In fact, the more chipping in with food packets, the easier it became for volunteers and authorities to organise food for thousands of volunteers and those at camps.

Social media played a vital role in sending the message across. Among those at the forefront have been members of Facebook page EAT – Eat At Trivandrum, where the usual posts and discussions about food and dining were completely overtaken by updates on requirement for relief materials since disaster struck.

“We have been in direct contact with the Thiruvananthapuram taluk office. As soon as the office informed us about food supply to the camps, the message would be put out on our Facebook page, facilitating the collection,” says Arvind Soju, an EAT administrator.

He points out that many restaurants magnanimously came forward with large supplies of food kits to relief camps and volunteers. Like Hotel Azeez in Poojappura which sent about 1,000 chicken biriyani packets to a camp in Neyyanttinkara last Friday, or Poomaram restaurant near Venpalavattom, which sponsored 150 meals for three days for volunteers. Proprietors of the Irani eatery chain have also been contributing generously to the requirement, while Imperial Kitchen near Devaswom Board packed short eats like bun, rusk and biscuits for volunteers as well as those housed in relief camps.

Al-Hassan group of hotels was having just another day at the office when its proprietor, Ayaz Sait, received an urgent call for help from a friend volunteering at the relief camp set up at Priyadarshini Hall on Independence Day. “They needed food for both those at the camp and for volunteers. I immediately got in touch with my other hotelier friends. Hotels like Sri Udupi restaurant pitched in and we arranged both lunch and dinner,” says Ayaz. He had since then kept in touch with volunteers mainly at Priyadarshini Hall and SMV school relief camps and made arrangements for tea and snacks as well whenever the need arose. On various occasions, Ayaz, along with his caterer-friends, provided chappathi, vegetable kuruma, biriyani, fried rice and meals.

Noushad Rasheed, owner of Hotel Azeez, says when the management realised the magnitude of the crisis, they didn’t think twice in responding. “We closed the hotel for the public on Friday and all our 25-odd staff plunged into preparations for the 1,000 packets of biriyani we promised. We also attempted to provide food packets to some of the affected areas ourselves. As a hotelier, I believe this is the least we could do,” says Noushad.

Sukil Ram, owner of Poomaram restaurant, says his regular customers were pro-active in chipping in. “We closed our hotel for three days to cook for the flood victims. We provided close to 500 pothichoru (a packaged meal consisting of rice and curries). It was wonderful to see our customers themselves coming forward to parcel pothichoru and transport the food and other essential items like water to relief camps and to the corporation authorities for distribution,” recounts Sukil.

In another instance of generosity, a prominent restaurant in Palayam, which wishes to remain anonymous, had already closed and was engaged in cleaning up the place on Sunday night when they received an “urgent request” for 150 food packets for military personnel flying back to the city airport after rescue operations in other districts. “They, without a moment’s hesitation, re-opened the kitchen and prepared and delivered 150 food kits on time,” Arvind reveals. There are other unsung heroes too who rose to the occasion, like a group of families in Kurishumala, wishing not to be named, who prepared 1,200 packets of food one day and sent to Thiruvananthapuram.

Though probably limited in terms of resources, home chefs, however, were not limited by resourcefulness in springing into action. Deepika Kamnani remembers receiving a call from a camp volunteer late on Wednesday.

“I managed only 25 food packets at such short notice and despatched them immediately. From the next day, I started receiving more and more requests from several quarters and our kitchen has been abuzz since then. I think in over six days, I could provide over 4,000 food packets, both lunch and dinner,” says Deepika. She cooked channa, daal, and paneer dishes along with chappathi or rice.

With Thiruvananthapuram being spared the worst of the floods, home chef Swapna Rakesh knew that the people in the district had to be generous hosts. Keeping in mind the shelf life of vegetable curries, she had a “sweet and spicy” answer.

“We could provide food to relief camps as far as in Ernakulam. As the roads were rendered not easily navigable, chances were that rice or curries would spoil by the time food reaches there. So we made pineapple pickles to go with chappathis. It’s both sweet and spicy, hence palatable,” says Swapna, who “could not keep track of” the number of food packets her kitchen whipped up.

At the Thiruvananthapuram taluk office in East Fort, the staff have been having their hands full with sorting and ferrying food packets to relief camps under its jurisdiction. They, however, heaved a sigh of relief by Tuesday when the number of relief camps under the taluk come down from 37 to about eight. “About 25 of us have been working round-the-clock in shifts to coordinate food supplies coming in,” says Sreekantan Nair, Deputy Tahsildar at East Fort Taluk office. They have been receiving food packets from the Prisons Department, Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association and several NGOs and business associations. Five vehicles were there to ferry food to camps and for volunteers.

Sreekantan says the demand was at its peak on Monday night when about 7,500 food packets were required. “That was due to the inflow of about 1,000 volunteers at the airport who packing relief materials coming from several places to be sent to various districts,” he says, adding that there was no shortage for food.

While idli and sambhar are the most-supplied items for breakfast, lunch time has pothichoru or biriyani coming from various quarters. Camps receive mostly chappathi and curry packets for dinner.

Whatever the menu, those slogging in the many kitchens in the city and its suburbs ensured that all volunteers and those in the relief had had a full meal.