Gender Park to launch 'Food On Wheels' to serve safe food

Thiruvananthapuram: Streets in major cities of Kerala will soon be dotted with 'food trucks', providing healthy, hygienic and delicious dishes, thanks to 'Food on Wheels', an innovative initiative drawn up by Gender Park, a state-owned autonomous institution.

After the success of its acclaimed 'She-Taxi' project, the Gender Park, under the Department of Social Justice, is now all set to launch 'Food on Wheels' programme, which is envisaged to achieve food safety along with women empowerment.

Under the initiative, around 2500 women entrepreneurs will serve high quality food at cheap rates through mobile food units, which will be stationed nearby schools, colleges and government offices, Gender Park officials said.

"The initiative is set to be driven, literally and figuratively, by women entrepreneurs and will also see a healthy participation from men," they said.

"The Gender Park will be the facilitator for the implementation of the Food on Wheels programme. It hopes to increase the number of women entrepreneurs in Kerala by designing an initiative that caters to the lack of hygienic drinking water and food options," Gender Park CEO Dr PTM Sunish told PTI.

Like in the She-Taxi project, the Park would create a total business ecosystem for women entrepreneurs to run mobile food units under the Food on Wheels also, he said.

The programme also extends the benefit of receiving loans at nominal interest rates to interested women, he said.

Besides the day time mobile food units, the eateries, run primarily by women, will line up along the road side to serve tasty food to late diners under the 'Night Eatery Street' (NES) scheme of the Food On Wheels programme.

This will be launched in select locations.