Street smart

Christmas Day began  with splendid start of the National Street Food Festival in the capital. The first day of the gastronomic delight  witnessed thousand of foodies thronging the venue to taste diverse range of street foods of different states and regions from down south to north and west to east of the country. The festival is being organized by National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI).

Inauguration of the festival was done by renowned master chef  Sanjeev Kapoor. Several political and cultural personalities, social entrepreneurs and chefs attended the inaugural ceremony anchored by NASVI national coordinator Arbind Singh Sanjeev Kapoor said, “It’s high time the street food vendors got their due recognition. Despite serving the society, they are still neglected lots. Many people’s life depend on them. As today most of the people don’t have time to make their own food.”He advised the street food vendors to practice safe and hygienic methods to prepare and serve the food to the consumers.  

Coordinator of NASVI Arbind Singh said, “The main objective of organizing this food festival every year is that we want to empower the street vendors as a service provider to the society. Through this festival we are trying to empower the street vendors so that they can get the recognition and respect they really disserve.”

NASVI Programme Manager Sangeeta Singh said, “We are overwhelmed by the response of the Delhi crowd. We started on a very small scale but today it has turned out to be a mega event due to the love of the Delhi foodies. After few years we plan to developed it in a international food festival”

One of the major highlights of today’s event was launching of an Android App named Street Saathi by Master Chef Sanjeev Kapoor. The free Android App enables users to search nearby street food vendors by proximity, popularity and cuisine type. This App has been made by Dheeraj Agrawal, who himself was a Street Vendor when he was a kid.

NASVI also launched a book Street Sathi highlighting the issues of street food vendors during the event. The book would also carry brief tales of signatures dishes and their creators.On the last day, an awards ceremony would be organized wherein the master street food vendors would be awarded in the categories of hygiene, nutrition, serving, customer relation, innovation and popularity.