For office goers, home-cooked meals are always a priority, and Kudumbashree in Kerala has taken a leaf out of the world-famous Mumbai Dabbawala system to serve homely meals in steel lunch boxes to office goers in the state.
For the last four months, Kudumbashree in Thiruvananthapuram has been successfully delivering lunch in steel boxes to over 10,000 office goers on a daily basis through a project titled “Lunch Bell”.
Though the Lunch Bell project has a striking similarity with Dabbawala as they both deliver meals in lunch boxes daily to officer goers, the main difference between the two is that while Dabbawala is an age-old system delivering meals to office workers in a highly efficient six-sigma-rated logistics network that involves the collection of lunch boxes from homes of each recipient, the Lunch Bell project delivers meals prepared by a kitchen run by Kudumbashree unit to office goers in steel lunch boxes, ensuring total hygiene.
“Lunch Bell is a major endeavour aimed at providing freshly cooked, nutritious meals to office employees. This scheme stands out for its use of steel lunch boxes, an eco-friendly alternative to the disposable containers commonly used. The meals are prepared by members of Kudumbashree units, ensuring hygiene and the traditional flavours of Kerala cuisine,” Kudumbashree Thiruvananthapuram district coordinator Ramesh G told “Open Digest“.
He said the project has been well-received by office goers as they have been able to get over 10,000 orders a day so far. Though the Lunch Bell is designed on the lines of Dabbawala by using lunch boxes to give a homely feel, hygiene, and taste, the only difference is that the lunch for delivery is prepared by Kudumbashree and the orders are accepted through an app.
“We are different from other online food delivery platforms because we deliver lunch in steel boxes and collect the boxes back on the same day itself. We are getting tremendous support from people who prefer our totally green initiative that eliminates single-use plastic in food delivery. Also, people are happy with our system of collecting the steel lunch boxes back on the same day,” he said. While Kudumbashree has not mandated that customers wash the lunch box after consuming food, the officials say that the majority of customers return the lunch box washed and cleaned. “We don’t insist our customers wash the lunch box after consuming food, but the majority of them do it,” he added.
The orders are accepted through Kudumbashree’s food delivery app ‘Pocketmart’. While the budget lunch, which includes rice, sambar, pickle, koottucurry, and pulissery, is priced at Rs 60, the premium lunch, featuring non-vegetarian dishes, is available for Rs 99. The Kudumbashree representatives take back the lunch boxes after 2 o’clock every day, after which the boxes undergo three stages of hygienic washing before reuse. Regular customers also have the option to choose a particular lunch box so that the same box will be used to deliver for the customer repeatedly.
“We have introduced Chicken biryani for delivery under the project. As the project is a success in Thiruvananthapuram, we expect the Kudumbashree state mission to roll it out in other cities soon,” Ramesh added. To further strengthen the green protocol and reduce operational costs, Kudumbashree is also planning to introduce a scheme wherein the representatives delivering the lunches will be provided with an e-scooter.
Like Dabbawala, the Lunch Bell showcases the ingenuity and adaptability of a local solution in catering to the common need for healthy and affordable office lunches.
