South Kalimantan Social Service sets up public kitchen to feed forest fire task force

The Social Service (Dinsos) of South Kalimantan Province (Kalsel) has set up a public kitchen providing 8,200 meal portions for personnel of the forest and land fire (karhutla) task force during 14 days of operations in a protected forest area on Jalan Golf, Banjarbaru.

Head of the Social Protection for Victims of Social Disasters Section (PSKBS) at Dinsos Kalsel, Yoefi Fahromi, said in Banjarbaru on Wednesday that the public kitchen is being maximised to support the consumption needs of officers and volunteers involved in handling the forest and land fires in the field.

“On the first day we carried out two cooking sessions. Starting tomorrow we will maximise it to three cooking sessions a day. For each cooking session we prepare around 200 portions, so a total of 600 portions per day for them,” he said.

The public kitchen was established in the yard of a house owned by Hamid on Jalan Padang Golf RT 013/RW 004, Banjarbaru, in front of SMPN 11 Banjarbaru, with operations planned to last 14 days to meet the consumption needs of officers and volunteers.

Yoefi expressed appreciation to the homeowner for providing the space to support the operation of the Dinsos Kalsel public kitchen, as the support helps ensure the smooth fulfilment of food consumption for officers and volunteers during the forest and land fire response in the field.

He said the food menu prepared each day is varied so that the consumption needs of officers and volunteers remain well met, with several menus prepared including yellow rice, fried chicken, capcay, salted fish fried rice, and balado chicken with tofu.

In addition to preparing food at the public kitchen, Dinsos Kalsel has also provided vehicles to support the distribution of food to officers in the field at several forest and land fire handling posts, particularly at the posts of the Forestry Service, Public Works and Public Housing, the Naval Base, and the Regional Police.

To support the operation of the public kitchen, he said, temporary electricity needs have been prepared using a switch and MCB from PLN so that cooking and food distribution activities can run throughout the service period for officers and volunteers.

He explained that over the next 14 days the main focus of Dinsos Kalsel is to ensure the public kitchen operates optimally, but the agency remains ready to deploy personnel and support should urgent conditions arise, especially for handling in the protected forest area.