It
may seem a little preposterous to say - here's the biggest
kitchen in Bangalore. But it is not. It takes one to see
the kitchen, hear about the staggering amounts of food that
is cooked there and understand the philanthropic objectives
of the kitchen to realise that truly here is the biggest kitchen
- not only in the physical, tangible sense but also in the
spiritual, noble and not so tangible sense. Welcome to the
ISKCON kitchen.
The ISKCON kitchen is modernised and fully mechanised
to support the huge amount of food that is made here. And
it is completely hygienic as well. When we say mechanised,
what exactly do we mean? An oven or microwave does not qualify
for mechanised right? But here's a kitchen which uses a
lift, a vibrator, a conveyer system, huge loading vessels
and boilers, a massive network of chimney and exhaust. If
this ain't mechanised, then what is? The outlay of the kitchen
hasn't been peanuts either, a total of one crore rupees
has been spent on it.
The day for the kitchen, with eight cooks and eight women
to cut the vegetables, starts real early - at 3 am. Quintals
of rice is poured into huge vessels to be cooked. Once the rice
is cooked it
is sent into a pipeline to the rice carriers. Once the carriers
are filled, they are sent through a conveyer belt to transport
them to the loading area. Sambhar is also made similarly with
lots of fresh vegetables grown on their organic farm. Once the
Sambhar is made, it is sent through a pipeline to the waiting
containers in the packaging area. It then comes gushing out
of taps into the containers. It is really amazing to see the
sambhar and rice being made in such huge quantities and transported
on the conveyer belt.
So, for whom is all this food prepared? For poor students in
rural schools. ISKCON started the mid-day meal scheme called
Akshaya Patra on 3rd of July 2000 for rural schools.
According to Chanchalapathi Dasa, vice president, ISKCON,
the scheme while trying to wipe out hunger, has also had an
impact on schoolgoing habits. "The mid-day meal scheme
has encouraged parents to send their children to school. They
were otherwise sent out to do menial jobs."
Each child under the provision of the scheme is provided
with
a hot, nutritious lunch of rice, sambhar with vegetables
and curds from Monday to Friday. And according to the
children, the meal provided by this mammoth operation is very
tasty and much better than the one that was provided by the
government. "True, they were hungry before, but their
tongues were sensitive, too. The raagi mudde provided by the
government was filling but tasteless. Many children have said
that even the dogs wouldn't eat them," points out
Chanchalapathi Dasa.
You can sponsor a child's meal for a whole year by donating
Rs 1200/- Click
here to donate...
The programme launched in five schools on the outskirts of
Bangalore, has now reached to over 50 schools, with over 15,500
students fed everyday. Recently, they have also started
feeding around 500 students of Indira Gandhi International
Academic Residential School, Jagur.
So
coming back to the kitchen, what are the statistics in terms
of the amount of food cooked? About 2000 kgs of rice, 600
kgs of vegetables, 400 kgs of dal and hundreds of litres
of curds is used everyday. The food that is cooked is then
packed into specially made containers to suit the requirements
of different schools. The packed food is then transported
in custom-built buses to reach the schools by lunch break.
A few sentences about the buses themselves. The fleet
belonging to the temple consists of five buses. Each of the
buses as seen in the picture alongside shows that it has been
specially made to accommodate the food carriers. Each of the
buses costed ISKCON Rs 12 lakhs. There are about 8
boys to pack the food into the buses.
Now each bus carries food for 4000 students, and has a driver
and a security personnel to ensure the food reaches the school
on time. There are two boys to unpack the food once it reaches
the school.
Besides this, the temple also has a multi cuisine restaurant
on its premises called Annakuta which is exceptional
for the complete absence of onion and garlic in the
food it serves.
The Hare Krishna Chant
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare
Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
3:00:12 AM 
t
may seem a little preposterous to say - here's the biggest
kitchen in Bangalore. But it is not. It takes one to see
the kitchen, hear about the staggering amounts of food that
is cooked there and understand the philanthropic objectives
of the kitchen to realise that truly here is the biggest kitchen
- not only in the physical, tangible sense but also in the
spiritual, noble and not so tangible sense. Welcome to the
ISKCON kitchen.
it
is sent into a pipeline to the rice carriers. Once the carriers
are filled, they are sent through a conveyer belt to transport
them to the loading area. Sambhar is also made similarly with
lots of fresh vegetables grown on their organic farm. Once the
Sambhar is made, it is sent through a pipeline to the waiting
containers in the packaging area. It then comes gushing out
of taps into the containers. It is really amazing to see the
sambhar and rice being made in such huge quantities and transported
on the conveyer belt.
a hot, nutritious lunch of rice, sambhar with vegetables
and curds from Monday to Friday. And according to the
children, the meal provided by this mammoth operation is very
tasty and much better than the one that was provided by the
government. "True, they were hungry before, but their
tongues were sensitive, too. The raagi mudde provided by the
government was filling but tasteless. Many children have said
that even the dogs wouldn't eat them," points out
Chanchalapathi Dasa. 
So
coming back to the kitchen, what are the statistics in terms
of the amount of food cooked? About 2000 kgs of rice, 600
kgs of vegetables, 400 kgs of dal and hundreds of litres
of curds is used everyday. The food that is cooked is then
packed into specially made containers to suit the requirements
of different schools. The packed food is then transported
in custom-built buses to reach the schools by lunch break.
Now each bus carries food for 4000 students, and has a driver
and a security personnel to ensure the food reaches the school
on time. There are two boys to unpack the food once it reaches
the school.
