People living in Chettikulam do not usually wake up to the whiffs of Chanel No 5 or the soft jostle of Gucci hand bags. Mornings in the small town in Vavuniya district break with the lingering smells of war.
Chefs from luxury hotels in Colombo are spending nights in modest accommodation in Chettikulam to cook for war refugees during the day in nearby Manik Farm.
They do not roll out exotic foods for the queuing multitude, just basic meals of rice and legumes often accompanied by vegetables. “The experience is unlike anything our chefs have had before,” said Gerard Mendis, president, Chefs Guild of Sri Lanka.
Sending contingents of professional cooks to help operate kitchens among the displaced population in Manik Farm was the Guild’s idea, said Mendis.
Local NGO the Jathika Sarvodaya Shramadana Sangamaya (JSSS) which was already working inside the camps along with the United Nations agencies and other organisations backed the Guild’s initiative by hosting the chefs and getting them travel permits from the government.
Small groups of chefs from Galle Face, Cinnamon Grand, Holiday Inn, TransAsia, Taj Samudra, Continental and Mount Lavinia hotels, among others, have been visiting Manik Farm every week since June 1.
The Guild at present runs six kitchens there that cater to 10,000 persons. Each kitchen can handle meals for up to 2,000 people.
The hotels take turns in sending their staffers to the camps every week.
“Proper management of kitchens and taking care of the food requirements of such big populations is best left to professionals,” said V Aryaratne, executive director, JSSS. Breakfast at 7.30 a.m., lunch at 12 noon and dinner at 6.30 p.m. are served by the Guild’s chefs. For the government, the cost of meals for one person a day is between Rs 30 and Rs 70 depending on the variety of foods.
Each meal essentially comprises rice, legumes and vegetables, said Mendis adding that soya products and dried fish are served sometimes if they are available in the Vavuniya market.
Breads are a rarity because of the absence of good bakeries in Vavuniya, said Mendis. But do the food items meet the daily nutritional requirements of the people amid rampant malnutrition?
“We ensure that each meal contains a minimum of 2,100 calories,” said Aryaratne. The government supplies rice, legumes, sugar and oil in the camps, through the UN’s World Food Programme.
Around 270,000 people displaced by the war are still being housed in the camps of Manek Farm, eating out of open kitchens run by refugees themselves and not under the most hygienic of conditions.
Although the luxury hotel chefs reach out to a tiny section of this population, the endeavour is being viewed by some as a platform for young Tamils to get a training for employment in the coming days.
“Boys and girls who are being trained to cook professionally will find gainful employment in the future,” said Aryaratne.
While the Guild’s corporate social responsibility is likely to continue only till month-end, the hotels’ business plans for the north are really long-term. |
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