Community kitchen protocols to mitigate disasters

Protocols for community kitchens to attain food security 

By Malini Shankar 

Digital Discourse Foundation

In the immediate aftermath of the Asian Tsunami, despite the deaths of some 12000 people, Government of India declined the offers of help of US Navy and other foreign powers, rightly so.


Though there was not one structure or roof remaining in the entire Nicobar Islands (a notified tribal reserve / district), to India’s credit there was not one starvation death in the aftermath of the monster tsunami triggered natural calamity and disaster. Indeed there were many lessons to be learnt.



Once the emergency was declared the Military Establishment took charge, subjugating the civilian bureaucracy in a perfectly synchronised democratic exercise. India’s Defence Forces, got into battle gear except that the enemy was not defined as opposed to the Nation’s sovereignty. 

Ofcourse the Nicobarese did not get fish rice and Pandanus but they got nutritious alternatives which might not exactly have pleased their taste buds. But calorie calibrated native Indian foods rich in micro nutrients was supplied ensuring no starvation.




After all the Andaman and Nicobar Islands a federally administered island territory has long been considered a microcosm of India.

However that was not something the predominantly fisherfolk communities of the Nicobar Islands acquiesced with… Activists and the Nicobarese too cried hoarse that Kichidi was not exactly native to Nicobarese.


Fisherfolk in Tamilnadu need rice and fish curry not chapathis made by the very generous Sardarjis who came to Tamilnadu and undertook community kitchens without anyone supporting them through ‘crowdfunding’ or anything similar.


But then India is such a vast country with so many regions, regional cuisines, agrodiversity and agro meteorological conditions to suit the micro nutrients in the regional cuisines. This diversity ofcourse makes it very difficult to manage anything uniformly. One of my recent blogs highlights food security during disasters.

Research institutes like National Institute of Nutrition in Hyderabad and Central Food Technology Research Institute in Mysore have installed capacity in their regional hubs to prepare and distribute nutritious, calorie calibrated foods that additionally please the palate. Check out our photo blog Native nutrition during disasters to get a deeper visual insight into food security during disasters…



The role of Non-Governmental Organisations especially in disaster hotbeds like Odisha has been significant in the evolution of agro centric “culinary thought” in the aftermath of calamities and during disasters. It emerged that:

1.  Culinary Hubs have to be created so that prepared food does not have to be transported across vast distances … in an effort to distribute freshly prepared hot food to the communities affected in as little time as possible.


2.  Food to be distributed must include proteins, simple and complex carbohydrates, vitamins, calcium, minerals. Food stuffs must include sprouts, vegetables, fruits, lentils, cereals, pulses, non-fatty dairy products, green leafy vegetables, and a mild sprinkling of herbs and spices. If all these have to be balanced in freshly cooked food, Indian cooking qualifies well for pleasing the palate and meeting nutritional requirements. Click Indian food photo blog to view a mouth-watering journey through Indian foods!

3.      Surprisingly all these vital elements of nutrition are available in native recipes – synchronous to regional agrodiversity and agrometeorology. Rice a staple for Asians There are hundreds of varieties of rice in India alone. Similarly Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam enjoy wide range of rice varieties. 

4.   Vietnam is the 5th largest   rice exporter in the world. Check out Paddy fields of Vietnam to feast your eyes! Noodles ! Gives you a visual idea of the kind of foods, one can make of rice and its varieties in South and Southeast Asia.

5.      The food stuffs made for disaster shelters must be freshly cooked, easy to heat n eat, dry rations must be stored / refrigerated hygienically in food hubs not more than 35 kilometres from a disaster shelter.

6.      These dry rations must be cooked to become soft food stuffs! That is actually easy with Indian cuisine. 





Here below is a tabulated sample / indicative meal plan based on culture sensitive, palate pleasing, native nutrition compliant, calorie calibrated, micro nutrients inclusive, yet tasty and diverse meals for migrants / homeless and jobless in the southern state of Karnataka, in India.

Menu for 15 days Meal plan for 75 people for 3 meals a day

Day #

Breakfast pack per head

Lunch packet per head

Dinner

Beverages
  1.  

Warm sprouts salad with Raita   and 1 whole native fruit

2 Chapatis (made of whole wheat) with 1 bowl of raw vegetable salad; 1 bowl of  vegetable sambhar + 1 bowl of rice dish, + 1 bowl of unpolished brown / red rice  + 1 bowl curds / yogurt & pickle packet

Tamarind flavoured beaten rice

1 glass/ carton of milk

  1.  

Warm sprouts salad with millet soup + fresh cut fruit;

 

 

2 Chapatis (made of whole wheat flour) with 1 bowl Dal Fry + 1 cup of fresh vegetable salad; 1 bowl of rice dish: (pulav / tamarind rice / Tomato Bath / Lemon rice / similar& pickle packet

Beaten Rice with tempering; 1 boiled egg

1 packet buttermilk
  1.  

Warm sprouts salad with chutney + fresh fruit and 1 glass of buttermilk / coffee / tea

1 Ragi Ball with vegetable sambhar,

1 cup of red rice and pickle packet

Beaten rice Bisibelebath

1 packet of curds / buttermilk
  1.  

Warm sprouts salad with fresh cut vegetables + 1 fruit,  +200 ml carton of milk

1 millet flour Roti  with dry vegetable curry;

1 bowl of rice dish

1 cup of fresh vegetable salad;

Biryani

1 packet of milk / curds / buttermilk
  1.  

1 bowl of steamed sprouts with Thumbulli and fruit + 1 carton of ORS solution (orange flavour)

2 chapathis with fresh vegetable salad / dal; 

1 bowl of vegetable sambhar

1 bowl of rice;

1 bowl of Tamarind Rice + 1 boiled egg

1 packet of milk / curds / buttermilk
  1.  

1 Bowl of buckwheat and milk porridge 1 fresh fruit

2 chapatis with vegetable curry / sambhar + bowl of rice

3 Jeera / thyme flavoured chapattis with pickle 

1 packet of curds / milk / buttermilk
  1.  

Beaten wheat with lemon flavour and seasoning

2 chapatis with Chole curry + 1 bowl of rice with Chole, Curry and fresh vegetable salad + cup of curd rice  + fresh fruit and pickle

1 bowl of Kichidi with Raita

1 packet of curds / milk / buttermilk
  1.  

Vegetable - semolina Upma (Vangibath flavour) + 1 fresh fruit

2 Chapatis (made of whole wheat) with 1 bowl of raw vegetable salad; 1 bowl of  vegetable sambhar + 1 bowl of rice dish, + 1 bowl of unpolished brown / red rice  + 1 bowl curds / yogurt & pickle packet

Tamarind flavoured beaten rice

 
  1.  

Kutta Avalakki (beaten rice)

+ fruit + 1 cup Ragi gunjee/ (Millet soup)

2 Chapatis (made of whole wheat flour) with 1 bowl Dal Fry + 1 cup of fresh vegetable salad; 1 bowl of rice dish: (pulav / tamarind rice / Tomato Bath / Lemon rice / similar& pickle packet / tamarind rice / Tomato Bath / Lemon rice / similar& pickle packet

Beaten Rice with tempering; 1 boiled egg

 
  1.  

Bisibele Avalakki + Ragi gunjee / millet soup+ 1 fresh fruit

1 Ragi Ball with vegetable sambhar,

1 cup of red rice and pickle packet

Beaten rice Bisibelebath

 
  1.  

Pongal + Ragi Gunjee+ 1 fresh fruit

1 millet flour Roti  with dry vegetable curry;

1 bowl of rice dish

1 cup of fresh vegetable salad;

Biryani

 
  1.  

Kichidi  with vegetable soup + 1 fresh fruit

1 millet flour Roti  with dry vegetable curry;

1 bowl of rice dish

1 cup of fresh vegetable salad;

1 bowl of Tamarind Rice + 1 boiled egg

 
  1.  

Avalakki Oggaranne + 1 glass of milk / buttermilk + 1 fresh fruit

2 chapatis with fresh vegetable salad / Dal; 

1 bowl of vegetable sambhar

1 bowl of rice;

3 Jeera / Cumin / thyme flavoured chapattis with pickle 

 
  1.  

Upma with fresh fruit and yogurt + 1 boiled egg / millet soup

2 chapatis with vegetable curry / sambhar + bowl of rice

1 bowl of Kichidi with Raita

 
  1.  

Sprout salad with fresh fruit and millet soup

2 chapatis with Chole curry + 1 bowl of rice with Chole or chickpea, Curry and fresh vegetable salad + cup of curd rice  + fresh fruit and pickle

1 bowl of Sprouts salad with fresh cut vegetables, 1 bowl of fruits salad with 1 cup of fresh yoghurt.

 


In this meal plan we have tried to devise a nutritional plan by avoiding labour intensive cooking involving baking on a pan for that takes more hours of cooking per head. We have also tried to calibrate calories and other nutritional values to please the palate, conform to native tastes and ingredients for traditional cooking.  

Credits: 

CINCAN, (United Command of the Indian Defense Forces, Defense Ministry, Government of India), 

Pixabay, 

G.S. Bedi IAS, 

Malini Shankar, 

Sanjeev Sabharwal

Pixabay

Article, Text and Research: Malini Shankar, Digital Discourse Foundation  







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