A handful of love – Oru pidi anbu – those thought to be burdens on society deserve love and joy as much as nutrition. The Trans Community Kitchen was started by Aruvi, Srijith, Anish, and Sharan Karthik. To pay forward the love and joy that society has shared with us, and in the way that we have been helped without questions being asked of us, we wanted to help people stranded without a free or cheap source of food on the full lockdown Sundays, a press release said.The kitchen runs entirely on the labour of Trans women, in two spots – one in Porur, Chennai, and another in Tsunami Quarters, Ernavur, Chennai. 20 community leaders in both kitchens in total, and many other volunteers, including but not limited to Shankari, Priya Ezhumalai, Bobby, Sowmiya, Sowndharya Gopi, Rupakala Vedachalam, Ramya, Kaavya, Mageshwari Elumalai, Bavya, Preethi Ganapathi, Sandhiya, Madonna, Nazeena, Maya have been hard at work since the morning. At Porur, they have a bigger kitchen that distributes food to, among other people, homeless/street-occupying elders, destitute women, migrant workers, sanitation workers, those stranded on the roads due to the lockdown, ambulance drivers, and policemen on duty. Priya Ezhumalai(Coordinator) said to Porur Times, We have made sure to take every precaution required to not give ourselves or others an infection food is sanitarily prepared by cooks wearing masks, hairnets, and aprons and the kitchen follows social distancing and sanitation protocols and we’re also distributing masks to those who don’t have them when we handed out the food.
The menu so far has been rava khichdi for the morning and brinji is being prepared as for the afternoon.
Sreejith Sundaram (Head coordinator) said, At Porur, we are aiming at serving two meals to 500 people everyday, and so far we have ramped up our work to serve 300-400 in the areas including but not limited to Porur Toll Gate, Maduravoyal, Mettukkuppam, Alappakkam Karappakkam, Lakshmi Nagar, Valasaravakkam, Virugambakkam, Avichi, Vadapalani Bus Depot, Arumbakkam Metro, MMDA, Ambal Nagar, CMBT, Koyambedu temple, Maduravoyal onion mandi, Vanagaram, Porur Gopalakrishna Theatre, Iyyappanthangal, Kaattuppakkam, Poonamallee, Karayanchavadi, and Kumananchavadi.