CHENNAI: A team of policemen, philanthropists and college managements supplied 1.5 lakh meals over 52 days during the second wave to doctors, nurses and other staff of the five government hospitals in Chennai and Chengalpet.
A central kitchen was set up at Guru Nanak College in Velachery to make roti, channa dal, palak panneer, vegetables, paneer pulao, and even pizza. Not less than 3,000 high quality meals were delivered daily to hospitals from May 10 to June 30 for lunch and dinner, depending on the demand.
Additional director-general of police A K Viswanathan helped bring together many individuals, philanthropists and corporate houses. This team had joined hands for a similar initiative during the floods in 2015 and delivered nearly two lakh meals. This time the focus was
on health workers, who were working round the clock, often too busy to make a proper meal.
Every day, the food was prepared after ascertaining the requirements from the five government hospitals. Constables from the Tamil Nadu Commando Force and Tamil Nadu Disaster Response Force were also roped in for packing and distribution. They packed the food in disposable containers from10 am to11 am.
Viswanathan said, "Soon after the lockdown, we discussed about the food distribution to the frontline workers. This helped the hospitals focus on treatment. For other people willing to distribute food, transportation and moving around the city was an issue. But for us [police] that was not a problem, so we could freely distribute food. We only made sure the food was nutritious."
