Inside India's Biggest Kitchen That Feeds Thousands Of Citizens Amid Lockdown

Salena Harshini |May 13, 2020

This community kitchen in Bangla Sahib Gurdwara, New Delhi is working day and night to provide meals for nearly 80,000 people in need every day. Check out to see what's inside the mega kitchen.

In the midst of the current lockdown in India, there is a heartwarming act that stands testimony to the humane of society. In Delhi’s Bangla Sahib Gurdwara, hardly any visitor is left hungry. As the pandemic is making it hard for thousands to makes ends meet even for the daily meals, the community kitchen of Gurdwara has stepped up and fed more than 75 thousand people every single day.

Let's take a look inside the kitchen that is feeding thousands of Indians here. In this kitchen, innumerable meals are being made and delivered to lots of people daily.

Sevak Stirring Food — A "sevak" at the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara community kitchen using a huge utensil to stir the food for the distribution of the day. (source: Biplov Bhuyan/ Hindustan Times)

On a daily basis, they use about 1,200 kg rice, 1,600 kg aata along with 700 to 800 kg of dal to make the meals. Afterward, the dishes are delivered to about 17 places around Delhi-NCR. Each typical serve has rice, ghee dal, chapatis with a different kind of sabji being cooked every day.

53 sevaks do the job of putting the whole delivering and cooking process together.

DSGM (Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management) which takes care of the distribution and preparation of this daily langar, shared with a daily that the quantity of people has taken a hike since their first time of food distribution after the authority announced the lockdown on March 24.

Dough — They use a machine to knead the dough as it helps speed up the procedure of making large dishes (source: Biplov Bhuyan/ Hindustan Times)

Harbhej Singh, who is in charge of the community Bangla Sahib Gurdwara kitchen, said,

“It’s our religion to serve the needy, no matter what the circumstances are. Nothing big about this, we are just doing our duty and want to feed more people everyday. We want to make sure nobody sleeps hungry.”

Chapatis slide from an automated machine into a basket. This kitchen is working with the aim of serving the community as well as providing nourishing meals to those in need (source: Biplov Bhuyan/ Hindustan Times)

The whole of gurdwara’s premises is too divided workwise in order to make sure there is appropriate social distancing. Moreover, the kitchen is assured to be cleaned after each preparation.

Flour — A full-time worker in the kitchen, Manpreet Singh, 19, standing in front of piles of flour (source: Biplov Bhuyan/ Hindustan Times)

Lentis — Sticking to nutrition and consistency, they keep a permanent menu with slight alterations, Every meal includes rice, chapatis, seasonal vegetables, and lentils. (source: Biplov Bhuyan/ Hindustan Times)

Food — A line of cauldrons with dishes being made at New Delhi’s Gurudwara Bangla Sahib. (source: Biplov Bhuyan/ Hindustan Times)

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