Officials at the Vaitheeswaran Koil town panchayat have requested tea stalls to sell health drinks also, in order to promote healthy habits among residents of the town in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. While tea and coffee would still be served, people would be encouraged to drink herbal concoctions as well.
Officials of the town panchayat inaugurated the sale of health drinks at a tea stall on Friday morning, where three types of healthy concoctions -- Kabasura kudineer, milk with turmeric and pepper and a drink made from lemon juice, ginger, pepper, turmeric and palm jaggery -- will be sold.
“While we have introduced the drinks in one tea shop as on Friday morning, we have organised a meeting with all tea shop owners. Many have come forward to join the initiative and will begin selling the drinks soon,” K. Kuhan, Executive Officer, Vaitheeswaran Koil town panchayat, said.
Meanwhile, a herbal garden has been set up around the compost yard in the town. “The women working at the unit had earlier planted corn on the campus of the compost yard and used the compost from the yard to raise the corn. In the remaining area, herbs such as black nightshade (manathakkali), gale of the wind (keeranelli) and Indian Borage (karpooravalli) are being grown. People can approach the authorities if they wish to purchase the herbs. We will sell it to them at a nominal cost,” Mr. Kuhan said.
Restaurants in the town earlier introduced healthy meals and have received wide acclaim for the initiative.
“Instead of spicy curries and rice, we asked the restaurant owners to serve fresh vegetables, salads, leafy vegetables, Thoodhuvalai or Solanum trilobatum and lemon rasam, ginger buttermilk and pickled gooseberries. While we were hesitant initially, we noticed that many residents, even families, purchase and consume such meals on a regular basis. Since they are reasonably priced, they are able to afford it,” Mr. Kuhan said.
Officials are pulling out all the stops to ensure that the residents consume healthy food and stay healthy during these testing times. “Even if they adopt one of our initiatives long term, our mission is accomplished,” he added.