Prison to dish out free noon meal for poor

After its low-priced chicken curry and chapathi becoming a big hit, the Poojappappura Central Prison here will soon roll out delicious vegetarian meal to be distributed free of cost to the poor and needy.
The scheme, named 'hungry-free city', will be launched on April 30 to dish out noon meal to 2000 destitute persons in the city.
The project will be implemented with the support of the state Social Security Mission, ADGP (prison) Alexander Jacob said.
"The core aim of the project is to make the capital city 'hunger free'. For that, we are planning to distribute food free of cost to the patients and by-standers at Government Medical College Hospital and Sree Avittom Thirunal Hospital (SAT) for women and children here in the initial phase," Jacob told PTI.

The lunch packet will contain dal curry, 'thoran', 'aviyal' pickle and rice.
In the second phase, the scheme would be extended to old age homes and beggars.

Earlier there were plans to sell the meal at a modest price of Rs 20 per packet to the public, as is in the case of the chapathi-curry set, through mobile units.
Vegetables for preparing the dishes will be sourced from the prison garden and rice and provisions to be purchased from the state-run outlets of Supplyco.
The services of around 100 inmates of the Central Prison would be used for the lunch scheme.

Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan inaugurated the hi-tech cooking-unit for preparing the meal at the prison premises here today.