SURABAYA (July 20, 2021) – Six public kitchen cars are parked next to a large tent forming the letter L painted blue. The letters 'KEMENSOS (--MINISTRY OF SOCIAL AFFAIRS—Read)' are engraved. Dashing and striking in white over blue.

 

Inside this tent, the heart of life beats. From this tent, various ready-to-eat menus and boiled eggs are cooked. This food aid is awaited by the officers who because of their dedication, must focus on the task. So it needs to be assisted so that the task of serving the community in an emergency period continues to run optimally.

 

As a public kitchen, in this tent, there is various supporting equipment. There are jumbo-sized frying pans, as well as a gas stove. Here and there, dangling tubular tubing hoses connect LPG gas cylinders and stoves.

 

The time showed at 04.25 pm local time, and the volunteers from the social pillars shared their duties. The cooking team had just finished their job and the distribution team started to send thousands of boxed rice and eggs to various designated places. Various cooking utensils take a break. The process of cooking the food just passed.

 

The public kitchen on Jalan Arif Rahman Hakim number 131-133 beside the Surabaya Convention Hall building, can produce between 5,000-6,000 boxes of ready-to-eat meals, and around 300 boiled eggs, every day. This is not an easy matter.

 

These volunteers come from the Disaster Preparedness Cadets (Tagana), Community Social Workers (PSM), District Social Welfare Workers (TKSK), Family Hope Program (PKH) companions, and Youth Organizations and the social pillars work in three shifts: morning, afternoon and evening.

 

Each shift is manned by about 15 people. “If it is complete, it can send 15 people in each shift, so in a day there are 45 people taking turns. But the number can fluctuate if one of the youth groups is sick or self-isolated," said the representative of Karang Taruna of Surabaya City, Handik.

 

After all, the faces of the public kitchen volunteers were still happy. They are always alert and do not seem tired or sluggish. Their enthusiasm was further pumped by the presence of the Minister of Social Affairs Tri Rismaharini yesterday. Of course, also because of the awareness that the difficult task is to help the community affected by the Java-Bali Emergency Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) policy.

 

The sun continued to head for the contest. Meanwhile, one by one the distribution team continued to deliver food according to the notes on the whiteboard to the public. The food is addressed to health workers, PPKM insulating officers in the field such as the TNI (Indonesian National Army)-Polri (Indonesian Police), Satpol PP (Civil Service Police Unit), transportation services, graveyard officers, as well as some of the underprivileged residents who are self-isolating.

Handik also said that the Youth Organizations in Surabaya are located in 31 sub-districts and 154 sub-districts. The youth organizations involved in Surabaya public kitchens consist of youth organizations in Surabaya, District Youth Organizations in Surabaya, and Youth Organizations in Surabaya.

Of the 31 Karang Taruna Subdistricts in Surabaya that could attend, there were around 12 Subdistricts, this was because there were members of the Youth Organizations in several Subdistricts who were practicing self-isolated and taking care of sick families.

Accompanied by a cup of black coffee, Handik also explained the various Karang Taruna activities in Surabaya during the Covid-19 pandemic in their respective environments. Activities include spraying disinfectants, distributing masks as well as outreach and education on health protocols to the public.

“During the Covid-19 pandemic, we along with other social pillars worked together in the neighborhood and since July 5, we have been helping in public kitchens. The obstacles faced are, for example, transportation problems for sending aid to residents who are located quite far from Surabaya," he said.

In Bandung, volunteers also work tirelessly. The public kitchen at Wyata Guna Center Bandung has started to cook since 03.00 this morning providing boiled eggs and ready-to-eat food. Public Kitchen Management is divided into groups consisting of a team for cooking rice, a team for chopping vegetables and side dishes, a team for cooking vegetables and side dishes, and a packaging team.

Under a joint team consisting of Disaster Preparedness Cadets (Tagana) from both the City and the Regency in the Bandung area, West Java Social Office employees, as well as Wyata Guna employees have deftly produced food menus such as rice, beefsteak, chili fried potatoes, accompanied by citrus fruits, this mineral water swiftly prepares box after box of ready-to-eat rice.

The rice box which is now filled has begun to be assembled in plastic bags by the packaging team. By using pick-up vehicles, boxcars, and also medium-sized trucks, one by one the ready-to-eat food packages were filled in a matter of minutes in the belly of the distribution vehicle.

The Public Kitchen of Wyata Guna Center Bandung can provide 3,641 packs of boiled eggs, and 2,500 boxed rice, which is then directly distributed to several hospitals, Community Welfare Institutions (LKS), residents in centralized self-isolation, and field officers on duty.

Some parties who received this assistance expressed their appreciation and gratitude for the assistance provided by MoSA during this Emergency PPKM period.

"I am a representative of the Director of Al-Ikhsan Hospital, Bandung, thank you very much to MoSA, which has helped a lot in sending eggs and ready-to-eat food. We did not expect MoSA to pay so much attention to the Health Workers in our Hospital," said Deputy Director of Human Resources of Hospital Al-Ikhsan Hari Mursid.