Help poured in for Ahmedabad Kerala Samajam’s AKS Santhwanam ” We Care & Share – Free Meals to Covid Quarantined Families’ initiative.
Ahmedabad Kerala Samajam has been serving free hot Kerala meals free of cost twice a day (both lunch and dinner) to the COVID quarantined families across Ahmedabad. The package consists of rice, sambar/moru curry, dry vegetable (Thoran), chutney, pickle and so on.
In the first phase of the pandemic the Samajam had served about 10,000 meals from December 2020 to January 2021, he said.
In the second phase, the free meal scheme kicked off on April 1, 2021 when COVID cases spiked affecting many families. The Samajam is currently supplying over 1,000 meals a day spread across 29 micro areas in Ahmedabad.
The Samajam has set up 10 home kitchens and the food is being prepared by families. Volunteers of the Samajam pick up the meals and serve it to the needy. Funds for preparing the meals are offered by Samajam members, well-wishers and other like-minded people. The project is self-sufficient as of now, he said.
Additionally, to extend support to humanity in these times of crisis, the Samajam has been undertaking various initiatives such as Emergency Ambulance Services, Home Oxygen Services, Elder Care Home Service, 24 x 7 Task force to address and guide on COVID mitigation and physical and mental well-being, distribution of food kits to the economically challenged families, end-to-end facilitation of people stranded in the city and wanting to reach Kerala through trains, and so on.
According to a statement issued by K.M. Ramachandran, President of the Samajam and C.V. Narayanan, General Secretary, “We are overwhelmed with the support coming in from all across the city. Over 400 individuals have contributed so far to this initiative as per their individual capacity. We are also highly indebted to our community organisations that came forward spontaneously and have been extending full support in the best possible manner. Gestures like this of community organisations, esteemed members and well-wishers come as a great moral support for AKS and they enable us to undertake projects of such magnitude and complexity thus fulfilling our commitment to the Society.”
They said that AKS and Ahmedabad community have proven beyond doubt that during times of such crisis “we all stand united and stay together irrespective of caste, creed and religion, which is pretty much the underlying philosophy of AKS. We look forward to continued support from all too make this project sustainable,” they said in a statement. At present, the average direct cost per day is about Rs.1 lakh.
The organisations that contributed generously to the cause are Ayyappa Temple Trust, Bapunagar; Sri Krishna Temple Trust, Lamba; Shree Ayyappa Temple Trust, Naroda; Ayyappa Seva Samithi, Nirnaynagar; Ayyappa Seva Samithi, Bopal; Ayyappa Seva Samithi, Vejalpur; Ayyappa Seva Samiti, Sastrinagar; Ayyappa Seva Samiti, Thaltej; Marthoma Church, Bopal; Shree Muthappan Seva Samithi; Jeruslem Marthoma Charitable Trust, Bopal; Marthoma Syrian Church, Behrampura; Nair Seva Samithi, Naroda; NWCA, Ghatlodia; NWCA, Vejalpur; Guru Dharma Pracharana Sabha (GDPS) and SNCM.
The office bearers informed that those who wish to be part of the project can do it through the link here.
The contact number of the office-bearers are KM Ramachandran, President: +919825010001 and CV Narayanan, General Secretary: +91 94273 10149.
Established in 1945, Ahmedabad Kerala Samajam is a socio-cultural organisation representing the Malayalee community in Ahmedabad with over 6,500 families as its life time members. The main objective of the organisation is to boost Kerala tradition and culture amongst the Malayalee population living Ahmedabad and foster a strong bonding with the local populace through various cross-cultural initiatives.
