The earthquake that struck Nepal on the 25^th of April and its aftershock claimed thousands of lives and displaced millions. To help the survivors Tata Trusts, in a joint initiative with Akshaya Patra and Sipradian Sahayata Sanstha (SSS), facilitated the setup of an Earthquake Relief Centralised Kitchen in the region. This decision was made following communication from the Prime Minister’s Office on 28^th April requesting Akshaya Patra to provide assistance to those affected by the calamity. A reconnaissance and need analysis undertaken by a joint committee with nominees from the three organisations showed that people in and around Kathmandu were struggling with an acute shortage of food, water and shelter.

To setup the kitchen Akshaya Patra transported installation material including heavy kitchen equipment like cauldrons, boilers and condiments, by road from Bengaluru, Pune, Lucknow and Valsad to Nepal.

The kitchen has been funded by Tata Trusts, while SSS is providing the ground support of undertaking delivery of the food. Located at Subakamana Party Palace, Suryabinayak Chowk, Bhaktapur; the kitchen was set up in a record time of five days after the installation material and assets arrived, the fastest establishment of any kitchen by Akshaya Patra. Covering approximately 2,500sq.ft, the kitchen has been equipped with three cauldrons of 600 litres capacity for cooking rice, one cauldron of 1,200 litres capacity to cook dal (pulses curry) and other equipment to assist in the food preparation.

The kitchen served its first meal in the evening on 19^th June to 1,087 people at Bode, one of the camps the kitchen is serving. Going forward the kitchen was serving over 17,000 meals a day to 17 camps in and around Bhaktapur. In its first month of operation the Emergency Relief Centralised Kitchen served 441,632 meals.

On 21 August, the kitchen had completed the production and distribution of its millionth meal. The kitchen continued operations for nearly a month after that. Finally, after an unforgettable journey spanning 88 days of operations and serving 1.4 million meals, the Earthquake Relief Centralised Kitchen was closed down as planned on 17 September, 2015. It has been a truly inspiring, unforgettable journey indeed.

Read more about the initiative here