A Kerala Story no one is talking about: Women feeding strangers, one meal at a time

By Vivek Rajagopal: It's 5.30 am and Soumya from Kerala's Kattakkada is busy cooking as her husband, a rubber tapper and porter, has to leave for work and her two children have to go to school. Stirring the sambar pot, she takes out the rice which she will steam.

One-and-a-half glasses of rice is enough for her family of four, but Soumya measures out two glassfuls of rice.

She has already cooked cabbage thoran -- a Kerala-style vegetable dry fry. And the sambar is almost ready. Both the thoran and sambar are also a little more than what her family needs.

It's not as if she is expecting a guest. In fact, Soumya doesn't even know who is going to have the extra portion that she is cooking.

Soumya soon packs the extra rice, sambar and thoran and hands it over to two young men who come riding a bike.

This is how the journey of the pothichoru -- meal parcel -- begins in the humble household kitchen, and ends in hospitals, feeding the needy.

Like Soumya, thousands of women across Kerala cook for absolute strangers every day, preparing 40,000 pothichoru meal packets. And this process has been going on since 2017.

This is a Kerala Story not many know of.

FROM HOMES TO HOSPITALS

The initiative that is now feeding around 40,000 people every day, started with just 300 cooked food packets in 2017.

The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth organisation of the CPI(M), started this initiative on January 1, 2017, at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College with only 300 pothichoru packets.

The campaign is called 'Hrithayapoorvvam', which loosely translates to 'Hearty Meal Parcel'.

"Today, after six years, we are distributing around 40,000 'pothichoru' daily to 50 hospitals in 14 districts of Kerala,” DYFI All India President and CPI(M)’s Rajya Sabha MP AA Rahim tells IndiaToday.In.

And there is no community kitchen for 'Hrithayapoorvvam' pothichoru, each of the 40,000 meal packets come from individual households.

"We are distributing Pothichoru collected from households only. There is no community kitchen to cook food," says AA Rahim.

THE JOURNEY OF HAPPY MEALS

How does Soumya's pothichoru packet end up in a hospital? How does she even know she can contribute?

Meticulous planning by DYFI workers goes into the distribution of 'Hrithayapoorvvam' pothichoru packets.

A calendar for the food distribution is prepared for the entire year. This list is then shared with the DYFI zonal committees. These zonal committees then undertake the responsibility for food distribution one after the other.

DYFI activists visit homes in their locality and request them to cook an extra meal they prepare for the following day's lunch. These activists then collect this extra food and distribute it at designated government hospitals within the district.

"Potichoru distribution happens through the support of the whole society. Even though we ask for food for only one person, many families prepare food for at least three people," says AA Rahim, CPI(M)'s Rajya Sabha MP.

The food can be prepared by anyone, and it can be collected by anyone. "If you are hungry, you can collect the parcels," adds Rahim.

Several DYFI members IndiaToday.In spoke to said that they were just a "humble part of a noble cause" of providing food for hungry people.

The workers have been engaged in this food distribution even during crises like floods, the Covid pandemic, and the lockdown. During the Covid lockdown, DYFI workers delivered pothichoru packets to police personnel on duty, long-distance travellers, and even stray dogs.

A NOTE FROM THE HEART

At times, it's not just food, but pleasant surprises too that are found inside the pothichoru packets.

Rajesh Monji, a teacher at the Malappuram Mampad MES College, was in Kozhikode Medical College for his mother's treatment in January this year.

He opened a pothichoru packet and found a note, apparently written by a young boy or girl.

The note read: "Chetta, Chechi, Umma, Thatha, Amma... Whoever receives this food parcel, please forgive me. My mother is not at home. I prepared this in a hurry to go to school. Apologies in advance if the food is not tasty. May you get well soon."

Rajesh Monji shared the note on Facebook and it went viral.

"Every grain of rice in the meal was filled with the love of the child who made the food," Rajesh said in his Facebook post.

MORE THAN JUST FOOD

Hrithayapoorvvam Pothichoru is not just about food. It's also about ingraining the art of giving among children.

“Don't think of this meal distribution as charity. In this neoliberal age, the youth grow up in a pervasive environment of selfishness. Through this initiative, the youth are coming forward to distribute a meal for the hungry they have never met in their life," says AA Rahim, CPI(M)'s Rajya Sabha MP.

Abhilash, a DYFI worker, said he has seen even elderly couples whose livelihood rely entirely on government pensions share food parcels.

Radha, a homemaker from Nelliyode in Thiruvananthapuram, has been participating in the Pothichoru collection initiative for more than five years now.

"Every 6 months, workers from DYFI come to my house to collect the pothichoru. Now, they don't need to explain the purpose of this initiative," says Radha.

"I just ask them when the pothichoru collection date is, and I am more than happy to share a handful of rice like this. I will do this as long as I can,” says Radha.