Tata Trusts' community kitchen serving meals to quake survivors

KATHMANDU, July 29: Tata Trusts has extended its on-ground support and relief to earthquake-hit areas of Nepal by setting up community kitchen at Bhaktapur and serving earthquake survivors of three districts -- Bhaktapur, Lalitpur and Kathmandu.

The project to serve food to earthquake survivor has been launched in partnership with the Akshaya Patra Foundation, India and the Sipradian Sahayata Sanstha, an initiative by Sipradi Trading. The kitchen has been set up at Subakamana Party Palace, Suryabinayak Chowk.Indian ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae, who visited the community kitchen on Monday, said the magnificent effort of serving thousands of meals every day to victims of the earthquake has became possible due to robust partnership between philanthropic organizations, private organization and the government. "I believe this partnership between Tata Trusts, Sipradian Sahayata Sanstha and Akshaya Patra exemplifies the kind of contribution that can be made through private NGOs and governmental partnerships and think this shows the way for future cooperation," Rae added.

The community kitchen started serving meals to earthquake victims from June 19 and provides around 18,000 hot meals a day to 9,000 victims at 17 temporary camps in the three districts.

"The Trusts' intervention is currently filling a vital humanitarian gap and providing food to communities lodged in relief camps. The kitchens are expected to be operational for another six months so that it gives the affected communities adequate time to reconstruct their livelihoods," Arun Pandhi, chief development manager of Tata Trusts, said.

Similarly, Siddhartha SJB Rana, chairman of Sipradi Trading, said that the partnership with Tata Motors spans over 30 years. "We are proud to have been chosen as local partners in our combined efforts to provide relief to the earthquake victims here in Nepal," Rana said.

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