Bangladesh's pandemic street kitchens

Mehmankhana, a street food charity, is one of several tackling the hunger crisis that the less fortunate in Bangladesh are facing due to the pandemic lockdown.

Scores of charities, civic groups and political parties ramped up aid efforts, distributing food, money, masks and sanitiser to those suddenly becoming jobless. However, the situation has dragged on for a year resulting in pandemic fatigue and only but a handful of charities are still going, still many mouths to feed.

Mehmankhana is the brainchild of actress Asma Akhter Liza, born out of witnessing hungry children robbing a food shop.

Asma Akhter Liza: "You can tell the adults that there is no food, but how can you say the same to little children? In the past one and a half years, these children who come here have become our family."

Over 2,500 people benefit from Mehmankhana's charity on a daily basis.

Poverty in Bangladesh has soared to 40 percent due to the closure of commercial, academic and government institutions during the pandemic, according to one SANEM research foundation report. And even though billions have been dished out as a stimulus package by the government and some garment factories granted permission to operate, the number of people left unemployed remains in the hundreds of thousands.

Eraz Mahmudi, Liza's sibling, was one of them - however, he has taken up the role of chief chef for the charity.

Eraz Mahmudi: "I lost my job as a maintenance engineer at a garment factory during the first wave of the pandemic. I was idly sitting at home when my sister Liza called me to join this humanitarian work. I rushed here to join the programme. And started working as soon as I arrived."

This hunger has so permeated Bangladesh's social strata that even middle class people are seeking meals from the charity.

Former city bus operator Mohammed Arif tells us more.

Mohammad Arif: "This Mehmankhana is a blessing for people like us. At least we can eat without worrying for the next day. Before knowing about this place, I spent two days lying inside a parked bus, literally starving."

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