Bethel Kitchen and a diverse community’s united faith in action

Behind the scenes of a place where police, churches, mothers and the government work as one.

Reyivolu Rhakho / Livine Khrozhoh
Kohima, June 20 (EMN): The Bethel Kitchen at the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) Convention Centre in Kohima, which has been catering to individuals and officials including health and medical workers working in Covid-19 management since June 3, is alive from dawn to dusk. Eastern Mirror journalists witnessed a full day’s chores at the kitchen on June 18.

Bethel Kitchen is an initiative of the Kohima district task force for Covid-19 and supported by the Kohima Baptist Pastors’ Fellowship (KBPF). A food committee of the district task force led by additional deputy commissioner of the commissioner’s office Limanenla has been constituted to oversee tasks of the kitchen.

Besides, 12 police personnel from the 4th Nagaland Armed Police at Thizama are stationed permanently, for Bethel Kitchen.

From day-one, the kitchen has been feeding over a thousand of returnees and ‘front line workers’ daily. 

On arriving at Bethel Kitchen at 3:20 am on Thursday, a policeman was already cleaning and working, preparing to make tea for people at the quarantine centres.

After some minutes, police personnel woke up and started fetching water. They lit the gas and filled two big pots with water for tea. They have to make tea for over 1,500 persons, and breakfast is to be served by 6:30 am.

Simultaneously, they started preparing lunch for some returnees who were to be leaving the centre before lunch time.

They said they wake up by 3 am every day and start making tea for people in the quarantine centres.

Three gas cylinders a day

Rice was cooked from fire and curry, on the gas burners. They informed that they cook 7-8 bags (approximately 50 kg) of rice daily and use up three cylinders in a day as they use high pressure gas burners to cook curry or make tea.

A policeman informed that they used to cook 12 bags of rice a day when the number of returnees was higher.

At about 4:05 am, Chang Baptist Church members started arriving. Churches in Kohima had been taking turns and volunteering to cook for the returnees. It was the turn of Chang Baptist Church of Kohima on Thursday. About 120 church members arrived and started working early in the morning. On arriving at the venue, they began their day with a prayer.

Tea was ready before 6:00 am, and after filling 33 tea pots, which were about seven litres each, the tea and biscuits were loaded into a mini-truck and a pickup, ready to be carried to the quarantine centres.

A mini truck with 19 tea pots and snacks was sent to K Badze, while another pickup truck was driven to Meriema and the Indira Gandhi (IG) stadium.

There are six drivers taking turns in transporting the food to various quarantine centres. Two of them sleep at the centre.

“Ghor jabole toh mon vra napunji,” said a driver who sleeps there and have not gone home to his family since he started transporting food to quarantine centres,  as he did not want to take any risk.

After putting on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits and sanitising our hands and shoes, we moved out at 6:17 am for Meriema and IG stadium quarantine centres.

Travelling at a speed of 20-30 km per hour due to the road condition and to ensure that the tea is not spilled, we (Eastern Mirror journalists) reached Meriema at 6:28 am. After delivering nine tea pots at Meriema centre, we headed for the IG stadium and reached after an 11-minute travel.

After the delivering the food, we returned to the kitchen at 7:08 am, which means it took us 51 minutes to deliver breakfast to Meriema and IG quarantine centres, and return.

As soon as we returned, the driver was again asked to transport lunch to the some returnees at Meriema as they would be leaving before lunch time.

While delivering food and snacks, the drivers took precautionary measures. All unloading were done by volunteers. In some cases, the driver would keep the tea pots and snack cartoons at the entrance after which volunteers would come to pick it up after he returned to the vehicle.

Every time the drivers got down, they would sanitise their shoes and hands before getting back into the vehicle. The drivers would also sanitise the truck at the entry gate of the centre after they delivered the meals.

Church members too have been working the whole time since their arrival, starting from cleaning rice to vegetables and cooking different items. They had lunch at 8:30 am, food prepared from outside by themselves. They then packed lunch for the returnees at 9:10 am.

After hours of cooking, rice and curry were brought to four long tables. Volunteers started to fill rice, curry, and pickle in disposable lunch boxes. It took almost two hours for them to pack lunch for 1,500 people.

After loading a mini-truck with packed food and drinking water, the first vehicle moved from the venue at 10:08 am and reached K Badze quarantine centre after 37 minutes.

After reaching the QC, a group of volunteers in PPE suits were waiting for the food trucks, at a separate block, to distribute food to each block.

Heavy food work

The mini-truck caters to 17 blocks (from block 7 to 24) while another pickup caters to block 1 to 6 at the centre. The drivers took necessary precautionary measures while entering the quarantine centres such as wearing PPE suits and applying hand sanitisers. They neither got down nor came into physical contact with the returnees during the whole process of delivering food.

As the buildings are a few metres apart from one another, the driver had to drive his vehicle a bit further and stop at almost every block. From block to block, the volunteers called out the returnees, who were inside their rooms, to come out and collect their food and drinking water (usually one litre per meal). The food is then placed on a table in the corridor to avoid direct contact with them. The volunteers ensure that each person gets their share and nobody takes an extra package.

After spending 83 minutes distributing food, and two stops at the frontline workers’ kitchen to pick up and drop the volunteers, the vehicle left the quarantine centre and reached Bethel Kitchen after a bumpy ride of 30 minutes. 

After the task of packing lunch boxes was complete at 11:00 am, church members started preparing for dinner, which concluded by approximately 2:30 pm.

Before they would start packing dinner, they had afternoon snacks, which they had prepared from outside by themselves. They started packing dinner for people in the quarantines by 3:00 pm.

The first mini truck for K Badze took off by 3:33 pm for delivery. The packing continued for almost two hours. After the packing was done, the members started cleaning the surroundings and the utensils which were used.

After the cleaning, the church members left the venue at approximately 5:30 pm. They had worked for 13 hours and 30 minutes from early morning to evening.  

After everyone had left, police personnel and members of the food committee cleaned the kitchen, mopped the floors, and stairs etc. The members of the food committee then left for home at about 7:00 pm.

On June 18, at the K Badze quarantine centre, breakfast and lunch for 890 persons and dinner for 790 persons was delivered, as some returnees were discharged after lunch.

At Meriema quarantine centre, breakfast for 410 persons and lunch and dinner for 370 persons were delivered. At the IG stadium quarantine centre, breakfast, lunch and dinner for 190 persons was delivered. 

A caretaker of the NBCC Convention Centre, Neibulie, said approximately 20,000 litres of water are being used at the kitchen daily basis. Once everyone leaves for home and bed, he stays back and fills each water tanks and goes home after making sure that things are in proper place and intact.

Faith in action

Additional Deputy Commissioner Limanenla, who is in-charge of the food committee, said they could not have thought a plan of starting the kitchen had the KBPF not volunteered.

Every day, different churches come to the kitchen to not only volunteer but also make donations, in cash or kind. Besides churches, various other religious organisations such as the Hindu and Muslim organisations etc., have also made donations, she said as she expressed gratitude to them all. 

Preparing food in such a measure requires adequate space and adequate provision of water. Fortunately, all of the requirements are available at the centre, she said and expressed gratitude to those in concern for allowing use of it.

The officer assured that the volunteers maintain strict hygiene in the kitchen. They provide hand gloves and caps to every person who comes to work at the kitchen. Further, they also make sure everyone uses masks and are provided one if they do not have it.  

Among the many challenges the authorities come across is in convincing drivers to drive food trucks inside the QCs, she said.

“It was not an easy task convincing these drivers because they had to go inside and deliver the food. We had to really persuade them and made them understand about the virus and disease,” she added.

“Sometimes we scold them but we also give them pep talks because it’s not an easy job,” Limanenla said. Sometimes they deliver food from six in the morning till eight at night or even later whenever need arises, she said. They make sure that the drivers go inside the QCs in PPE suits and take all precautionary measures. 

As for the Kitchen, Limanenla said the work has no timing and work will depend on the returnees. Because the main trains with most of the returnees have returned, ‘most probably, we may stop running the kitchen,’ she said.

The food committee has worked on a list of volunteers till June 30 as of now. However, if the kitchen is to continue, ‘We will come up with another roster again where different churches will volunteer to work in the kitchen,’ she said.

It’s a very busy day for all who come here to volunteer and ‘we are encouraged to see many young people coming to volunteer,’ she said. Starting from peeling potatoes to cleaning rice, and packing and dish-washing, everything is done by the volunteers and the workers there are grateful to them, Limanenla said.

She said many of the young volunteers had commented that it was not an easy task to work in the kitchen and people in the quarantine centres should not be complaining.

Food that were prepared may not be up to their ‘expectation,’ but ‘we try our best to give wholesome and warm food ensuring that it reaches the centres in time.’

‘Every day, we try to improvise, from cooking the rice to packaging, so that the food does not spill or gets spoiled on the way,’ she added.

On the first day, the kitchen prepared food for approximately 1,250 people and the highest was on June 17, preparing for 1600 people, the officer said.

Currently, the kitchen caters to three quarantine centres in Kohima. Apart from this, it also prepares packed food for returnees returning to their respective districts.

Opportunity for church to help the government

Dr. Kevichalie Metha, president of the KBPF, said it is an important opportunity for the pastors’ fellowship to partner with the government. The government is providing everything, and different Baptist churches from Kohima come every day to help at the Bethel Kitchen.

Approximately 80 to 90, sometimes over 100 volunteers, come to Bethel Kitchen and partner with the Kohima district task force daily. He said the enthusiasm of the people from different churches encourages them.

“I believe this is the time where churches can also help the government,” Dr Metha said. Besides providing manual support, some of the churches also sponsor lunch and dinner, he added.

Anungla Chang, pastor of Chang Baptist Church, Kohima, said about 130 members, comprising mostly young people, had come forward to work at the kitchen on Thursday.