ISKCON kitchen to provide meal to 10,000 people

Kolkata: Giving shape to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's dream to develop spiritual tourism in the Ganga Sagar belt, ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) is set to launch a permanent, semi-mechanised, modern and compact kitchen, which will be capable of providing a meal to 10,000 persons a day at the Sagar Island during the Ganga Sagar Mela 2020.

Gangasagar Project, an initiative of ISKCON Mayapur, would like to offer people an opportunity to experience hot, sumptuous, nutritionally well-balanced, vegetarian

meal throughout the year. The meal named "Annamrita-Thali", will contains rice, dal, roti, sabji, chutney and a sweet available from 8 am to 8 pm throughout the day, said Sundar Govind Das , project manager of ISKCON GangaSagar. The semi-mechanised kitchen, where the food will be prepared using steam, is considered healthier than the direct heat of the flame. The devotees of ISKCON will prepare the meal in the compact kitchen which has been designed in such a way so that proper hygiene, food safety and security norms is maintained.

In that kitchen we are giving priority to use 304 grade stainless steel. This project is absolutely non-profit, non-sectarian but charitable initiative to feed the poor and hungry tirthya-yatris regardless of cast, creed, race, language or religion to encourage universal brotherhood. ISKCON Gangasagar has developed the kitchen in such a way that if the state government wishes, the kitchen may be utilized as a centralized kitchen to assist in serving mid-day meals in adjoining areas of Sagar Island, Das said.

Couple of months ago the island was severely affected by cyclone Bulbul, which left trails of devastation.

All the communication was shut down for nearly 2 days due to which there was more appeal for cooked food among the locals and pilgrims who were stuck in Sagar Island.

With a compassionate mind that moment, the ISKCON management envisioned to build a permanent

modern kitchen at the Gangasagar which has facilities to stock inventory for couple of days.

In case of natural calamities and emergency situations , ISKCON kitchen is capable of instantly rendering relief by supplying food to the affected people, under the guidance of local Government said Subroto Das, media spokesperson of ISKCON Mayapur.

(Image from iscontimes.com)