Feeding the soul and stomach with warm meals

Trans Community Kitchen supports forgotten transgender communities with groceries, food packets, and essentials during lockdowns and beyond.

When the country went into lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 and people were confined to their homes with no warning or guidelines for buying essentials, the transgender community was forgotten. “They could no longer seek alms or go for work, which was mainly sex work. This means they were unable to afford food,” says Aruvi, 29, one of the members of Trans Community Kitchen.

Trans Community Kitchen was the brainchild of three individuals. It started as WhatsApp forward in 2020. “Srijith and Anish were the ones who began the initiative to mobilise funds to get groceries for the transgender community. I got the message and thought this would need further push to get a significant amount so that people could get their groceries. We did manage to raise funds,” says Aruvi.

They received appreciation for ensuring that people knew where their money went. “People sending us money were regular queer people. Those who had a little more and realised that the others would not even have that much sent us money. The accountability was maintained which contrasted with the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund),” she adds.

The kitchen grew to include transgender communities from the other districts. They would identify the community leaders in the districts and supply essentials through them. It was during the 2021 lockdown that the organisation grew to include the kitchen. “The non-functioning of Amma Unavagam and the Sai Baba temples left the homeless people with no access to food. So, we began a kitchen and distributed over 65,000 food packets,” she says.

From three people, the number grew to 22. Dressed in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), they would ride a scooter through north Madras and Porur to distribute the food packets. “One of the things the trans-community is very particular about is having good food. Like my friend Srijith would say, knock on any transperson’s door and you will always leave with food,” Aruvi says.

Today, though the kitchen has closed, the organisation caters to the needs of the community which are on the sidelines, like persons with disabilities, the elderly, the diabetics and the HIV-affected transwomen. “This is not a world for elderly transwomen. Society kills us before we can reach that stage. The elderly transwomen can no longer continue with sex work and there is no pension for seeking alms. They have to depend on their daughters for their survival,” Aruvi points out.

The community now buys groceries and medicines for them. They still open their kitchen when a person from another district visits the city for medical reasons and can’t afford food. “As the lockdown eased, so did our funds. So, we decided to branch out and do what we could where it matters,” Aruvi says. To contribute, contact transcommunitykitchen@gmail.com.