Story· 1 min read
What ₹40 buys at the Community Kitchen
A plate, a seat and twenty minutes of rest for someone who has stood all day. The arithmetic of one meal.
By MeghVin Foundation
Forty rupees is the figure we use for one meal. Here is where it goes.
What is on the plate
Dal, rice, roti, a sabzi and seasonal fruit, cooked the same morning by volunteers. The food is vegetarian and served with a plate, water and, wherever possible, a seat.
What it costs us
Our current purchase estimates in Ahmedabad are about ₹55 for a kilo of rice, ₹45 for wheat flour and ₹130 for tuver dal. A 15 kg tin of oil is about ₹2,100. Spread across a day's cooking, with gas and plates, that comes to roughly ₹40 a person.
Who eats it
Meals are served at construction sites, near hospitals and in settlements where daily-wage families live.
What we are changing
The kitchen started as a family habit in 2023. We are now moving it into the trust with proper records, and from October 2026 we will publish meal counts on the Community Kitchen page.
₹400 feeds ten people. Sponsor a meal.
