The Community Kitchen concept is very widespread in the slums of Pune. Be
it among families or communities with close ties and harmonious coexistence,
women choose to cook together, thus reducing costs (in food and fuel) and, not
always on purpose, helping to safeguard the environment with less CO2
emissions.
Through our Community Center project in the slums of Hadapsar, we wished to
replicate this model of food preparation with two aims in mind: empower the
women who belong to Self-help groups in the Community Center, and reduce the
cost of supplying meals to the Day Care Centers for Migrant Children.
When we started working with the Day Care Centers in December of 2011, a
catering company was supplying the food to us. At the same time, the work of
Asha-Kiran in Hadapsar was beginning to bear fruit through the formation of the
first women’s groups, which quickly became Self-help groups. Always attempting
to integrate the work of the different projects, we realized that this was a
good chance to take a first step towards the employability of women from the
Hadapsar group via the Community Kitchen.
Asha-Kiran provides the women
the necessary foodstuffs for the meals as well as a space specially equipped
for cooking them. Every morning, they are in charge of making lunch for the 250
children of the five Day Care Centers we work with. Asha-Kiran’s staff directly
supervises the quality of the food and delivery times to ensure that these 250
children receive the best possible service.
