Surojit Rout of Kolkata now delivers food to COVID-19 patients who need simple, healthy meals

The lockdown forced by COVID-19 pushed nearly everybody in the restaurant business — particularly in a food-loving city like Kolkata — into a corner from where they could see only two possibilities: sink or swim.

While many did sink, downing their shutters for good, many others stayed afloat by home-delivering the same food that once attracted customers to their establishments. But a few, like Surojit Rout, chose to reinvent themselves: by delivering food to patients recovering at home.

It was in August 2018 that Mr. Rout, a London-returned former solutions architect, started a restaurant called Ekdalia Rd — named after the neighbourhood, Ekdalia — in south Kolkata’s Ballygunge area. It was just about beginning to gain popularity when the virus struck and it never reopened after the imposition of lockdown.

Once the restrictions were eased, he began getting requests from friends and clients across the world who wanted home-like food to be delivered to their elderly parents and relatives living in Kolkata. That’s when he realised that there was an increasing demand for simple healthy meals and also that the demand was going to last for a long time to come.

So a month ago, he — along with a friend Ipshita Banerjee Bhandary, an ad professional and a home cook — started Dietfixx, with the purpose of delivering diabetic-friendly food to those unwell (including COVID-19 patients) and also to the elderly and working professionals.

“We have been around for only four weeks but the response has been encouraging. Of the total number of daily orders, five to six are for COVID-19 patients. Our clients also include quite a few cancer patients,” said Mr. Rout.

“My idea was to create an ecosystem that benefited everybody. The food is prepared by home cooks based in different areas of the city — it’s a sustainable model for them at a time when they themselves or their spouses might have lost their job or faced a pay cut,” he said.

Mr. Rout’s new business is indicative of two things: that more and more people in Kolkata are using their personal kitchen for supplementing their income; and that it is no longer considered unusual for a COVID-19 patient to get treated at home.

“So far we must have served nearly 100 families with a COVID-19 patient or patients in their midst. These are early days and we are still evolving. But I must say that the entire team, including the home cooks, are working round the clock to ensure seamless delivery of food,” Mr. Rout said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kolkata / by Bishwanath Ghosh / Kolkata – November 04th, 2020