'Punyacha dabba' helps rural students beat price rise

As vegetable prices play truant, a group of students from the University of Pune (UoP) has started a homely dabba (tiffin) service, called ‘Punyacha dabba’ at bare minimum rates for hostelites.

The students aim to provide wholesome meals to those needy students who cannot afford the prevalent market rates of ‘dabba’ services.

Library science student Bapu Pawar, who is among the students who took the initiative, said, “This service is for students from rural areas who live in hostels in the city. With the rising food prices, managing expenses becomes difficult for them. This is an initiative to help them.”

There is no doubt about how the service will be managed as the students have already done a ‘dry run’ for eight to nine months.
“We ran a mess by the name of ‘Punyacha dabba’ in two hired kitchens in Kothrud and Karvenagar where we hired three cooks for 10 months.

The service was at a medium scale with 100 dabbas and the rate was Rs1,300 to Rs1,500. This time we have even entered into fixed rate contracts with farmers to ensure we purchase vegetables in bulk and provide good meals at reasonable prices,” said Shekhar Nandkhile, third year engineering student at MIT College.

The dabba service took off on Monday and can be expanded to its capacity of 3,000 dabbas per day, the students said.