With over 50 benevolent patrons and donors by its side, the Helping Hands of Kolkata (HHoK) Community Kitchen has been live since 1st of June 2020 and has served more than 10000 meals to the residents of the camp area in Uttarpara, Hooghly. 2020 – The year which has created history – has changed the way mankind functions. It has made us realise and cherish the basic necessities required to survive. The fast-paced world came to a standstill for months. There has been chaos, fear and sorrow associated with the pandemic as the world now waits for governments to approve and roll-out the vaccines. On the other hand, nature got some time to heal, even if it was for a few months.
According to reports by the media, a novel coronavirus was first detected in China around December 2019. It slowly started spreading around the world by mid-January 2020. On February 11, 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced a new name for the novel coronavirus – COVID-19. On March 11, 2020, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by WHO. India reported its first case of COVID-19 on
January 30, 2020. Initially things were under control, but it started spreading rapidly around end-
February 2020. On 24 March 2020, the Government of India announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown starting from midnight. Everything came to a standstill from March 25, 2020.
The people who are privileged got the necessary supplies to survive the lockdown. Work from home and Zoom meetings became the new normal for the white-collar workforce. Consecutively an entire population went out of work as their work neither could be carried out from home, nor could they give their attendance over Zoom. The livelihood of these families came into question. But humanity is something that makes us humans – soon community kitchens were mushrooming up at every nook and corner of the city to help feed the underprivileged sections of the society. HHoK decided to play its part to stand by the people who slept hungry every night and set up its own Community Kitchen.
Everyday the HHoK Community Kitchen delivers food packets to 50 deprived and destitute residents of the camp in Uttarpara, Hooghly. The beneficiaries are mostly elderly people of over 65 years who are not physically capable to earn money, thus cannot afford even one meal a day. The food served ranges from khichdi and sabzi on most days, with 2-3 days of egg curry and rice. HHoK, in its own unique way, celebrates the birthdays of its donors by serving chicken curry and rice, and a packet of sweets on those days.
Debjani Chakraborty, who manages operations of the kitchen and is one of the core team members of HHoK said, “Our Community Kitchen is run by three women who also make an earning by cooking food and distributing the packets. So, we are not only helping feed people, but also allowing women to be self-sufficient. We are planning to replicate this model elsewhere in the state of West Bengal and in other parts of the country. But for that to happen, we would need the continuous support of our patrons and donors.”
About Helping Hands of Kolkata: HHoK is a foundation incepted by a group of individuals from the ‘City of Joy’, who have embarked upon a mission to join their helping hands to bring joy to those who have been deprived of it. The Kolkata-based foundation has been involved in social impact projects since 2012, which embrace the old who has been forsaken by her family, the young whose dreams needs to be inoculated, the less-fortunate who also deserves economic independence and self-sustenance, the specially-abled who only needs unconditional love, the less-fortunate who requires food and medical care, and mother earth without whom our existence is implausible.
HHoK is formed by 100s of individuals who have come together to lend their helping hands for the underprivileged sections of the society in the form of micro, small and medium contributions. The social impact group is led by youngsters all of whom are corporate professionals with large multinationals but are passionate about creating an impact in the society and building a more equitable social fabric. With a vision to formalise these micro, small and medium contributions, and establish a channel for corporates to get involved with their CSR funds, the group behind HHoK registered the trust Helping Hands of Kolkata Foundation for Care in 2020. HHoK is now focusing on structuring its projects and increasing the magnitude of impact that they create.
