Kohima’s Bethel Kitchen: No easy task feeding 1500 mouths daily

Our Correspondent
Kohima, June 5 (EMN): Volunteers and workers inside the ‘Covid-19 Bethel Kitchen’, arranged by the district task force (DTF) and supported by Kohima Baptist Pastors’ Fellowship (KBPF), have been preparing food since June 3 for all the people who are undergoing facility quarantine in the state capital.

Speaking to Eastern Mirror, Limanenla, ADC at the Commissioner’s office in Kohima, who is also the convenor of Covid-19 Bethel Kitchen, said that the idea of starting the kitchen emerged after caterers for the centres became reluctant to work due to the increasing number of returnees.

“We were utilising five caterers, out of that three pulled out in the middle, which led us to come up with this idea. We could not start this kitchen, had we not got the support of the KBPF; they assured us to support and manpower, so this had emboldened us to start the kitchen,” she shared.

The official informed that Bethel Kitchen is feeding about 1500 persons, including the health workers, sanitary workers, and volunteers besides the inmates in four quarantine centres, for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

She said that the inmates alone are around 900 persons, to whom breakfast is served at 6.30 am with a variety of snacks along with tea. She said lunch is ‘usually a vegetarian menu and dinner is non-vegetarian’.

The official stated that many churches and organisations have come forward to provide dinner so “almost every dinner for the last few weeks were provided by churches and organisations; and apart from all these things, we have been receiving donations from individuals, churches and organisations”.

Highlighting how the people have been tirelessly working to provide their services, the officer said that the day for the workers at the kitchen starts at 4 am and ends only at 8 pm.

She informed that it takes around 45 minutes to deliver breakfast, lunch and dinner from the NBCC convention hall to the K Badze quarantine centre.

The poor road condition adds to their woes, she said. Every meal has to be packed and placed inside cartons, as the packages tend to break ‘because of the movement of the vehicle’, the official added.

She maintained that care is taken, from preparation to packaging, transportation and delivery, to ensure that the food reaches the inmates along with two litre of packaged drinking water to every inmate daily.

She also informed that those who need more water could also call the centre control room, adding that there is enough provision.

Meanwhile, the officer maintained that the most challenging aspect of the work was the distribution of food packages in the quarantine centre.

“It’s already a mini-village or a colony,” she said.

She stated that K Badze alone has 24 buildings out of which the inmates have occupied 22, while Meriema has 17 buildings and all of them are two-storied buildings.

“In most of the cases, the food has to be delivered to the doorstep; so to deliver food to 900 people takes around four hours and sometimes five hours with about 16 volunteers in each centre, excluding the medical workers,” said Limanenla.

She also added that “before delivering the food to the doorstep, the management announces on the PA system that food has been brought down, informing them to be ready”.

“But sometimes, they are sleeping, listening to music with earpieces, so they don’t know when the food is being given to them. So after two-three hours also, calls come to the control room that they have not received food despite announcement and time-table given to them,” she shared.

The official maintained that the food always reaches on time but delivering it takes time.

She felt that people must also learn to appreciate those who are working hard for the returnees, despite various challenges.

Meanwhile, the president of KBPF, Dr. Kevichalie Metha, informed that some churches had also sponsored dinner.

He maintained that in a day, one church is assigned to look after and provide support by preparing the meals, with the government agencies providing all the necessities to serve the meal prepared by the volunteers.

Metha informed that at the NBCC convention hall, around 100 people are working, while volunteers from churches constitute around 70-80 persons daily.

He maintained that the pastors’ fellowship is encouraging all the churches to take turns and expressed hope that all the Baptist churches will come forward.

“All the churches are giving their best and every church is giving their service for each day,” he said.