“Love cannot remain by itself–it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service.”- Mother Teresa.
The world has come to a stand still with the cloud of the pandemic that revolves on us. With so much uncertainty and the idea of what next has us stuck on to our seats of so-called play of life. On the contrary, there are people who have come forward with the same cause: to help the ones in need. It may be our health workers or our volunteers giving their everything to make the impossible seem possible. One such story from our Mangaluru is that of The IVY’s Kitchen.
Mangalore-based IVY’s Kitchen is located in Anegundi, Bejai led by Ms. Ivy and Ms. Dilfiza who cook on their own to help the ones who are in need.
Dilfiza and Ivy got together and decided to provide food free of cost and with free delivery. Mrs. Ivy says, “The last time I was held up in Dubai, when lockdown happened for the first time. I felt the need to do something to help them. I just put up a poster immediately, sharing it with my friends and family here and abroad.”
Ivy says that Dilfiza is her kitchen friend, and both of them agreed to take this huge step. “We never thought about the finance thing. In the initial days, we pooled in our own money. Soon after, people and other volunteers started to help us. It was through the former Commissioner of Mangalore, Ajith Kumar Hegde, who helped us at first through our journey”.
Ivy’s Kitchen started with 80 meals in the first week to 70. Currently, they prepare 60-65 food packages per day. “We prepare fish curry weekly, with egg curry, dry vegetables, sambar, and grains, sprouts etc, providing a good and healthy meal.” Not just that, the team also prepares Biryani or Pulao, Kabab, or Chicken curry in the weekend! She also added a word that the team doesn’t distribute food along the roadside. “We are not distributing much food on the road. According to my observation, a lot of kits are being redistributed which are being wasted”
The team focuses on the rural areas of the city where families were in extremely bad conditions. “We made around 30 food kits and distributed them to rural needy. They really needed it”
The team makes meals of 60 per day. “My first intention is to give to the isolated people. It started with 30, but now it’s decreased as they are recovering”
Ivy’s Kitchen has also decided to begin their tiffin service too, but the team awaits for the conditions around the lockdown to get better.
She shares one experience, “Once when I was distributing food kits, one woman asked me, “Aren’t you going to click my picture? Many others did. Why don’t you?” So I denied and said that it’s not required because I understand their situation and I respect that. At the end of the day, that’s my only intention.”
Ivy focuses more on the area of Konchady, Derebail in Mangaluru where people are in need of real help. “I don’t really remember where this began. It was just through one single poster that I made.”
That one single step has indeed helped hundreds of people. More power to the team!
