It all started in 2016 when social activist Anoop Khanna’s mother suggested the idea of serving food to the poor. That kick-started his noble venture of Dadi ki Rasoi (Dadi means grandmother, and Rasoi stands for kitchen).

Initially, his kitchen started with serving just 15 people. But slowly, it gained massive popularity in and around the area of Sector 29 in Noida. And why wouldn’t it? He serves food for just Rs 5 — the same price since the very beginning.

Back then, he would buy the vegetables from the local vendor. This inflated his cost and he found it difficult to maintain his meager price of Rs 5. But later on, he managed to buy his vegetables in wholesale. This brought his cost down by half. In fact, now, he has a dedicated vegetable vendor with whom he barters. In exchange for feeding food to the vendor’s entire family, he gets his vegetables for half the price.

Interestingly, his menu changes every day with varieties including dal, chickpeas, rice, sabzi, pickle, white peas, and on Sundays, khichdi.

Today, he serves close to 500 people daily and to maintain this demand, he has set up a centralized kitchen with CCTV cameras for quality control of the food. This process is personally monitored by Anoop Khanna.

So why not do this for free? The reason–he doesn’t want the people buying the food to lose their self-respect. Also, by giving them the power to buy, he gives them the authority to ask for more as well.

Oh, and he also distributes clothes on the 15th of the month for a cost of Rs 10 apiece.

Source: Dadi ki Rasoi