Evening Snacks

SSMS’ most visible initiative this semester has been the Evening Snacks initiative. For a fee of twenty-five rupees a day, students can sign up for snacks available at the mess between 4:30 and 5:30 PM. Two food items and one drink are made available every day. The menu has included–amongst other items–samosas, cream rolls, french fries, cakes, and puffs. The EPC spoke to V. Abishek Balaji, the incumbent Ram-Budh Mess Rep and current SU General Secretary-elect, to find out more about this initiative that he spearheaded.

The menu for evening snacks is decided by the SSMS GC. As Balaji explained, the GC used the first few weeks as a trial, to better understand what menu combinations and food items are preferred. ‘After one point of time, we kind of got a hang of it, and ever since then the menu has been more or less constant.’

Speaking about the preparation of snacks, Balaji explained that Ram-Budh mess, unlike most other messes, has a bakery, with an oven and other baking facilities. Consequently, the food is currently being prepared only at Ram-Budh mess. To get around this issue for further expansion, SSMS plans to alternate the menus at different messes, so that items can be feasibly produced at individual messes, and the Ram-Budh bakery is not overburdened. They have also been in touch with Lt. Col. A.K. Bhataiya, the Chief of the Estate Management Unit (EMU), to increase the electrical capacity for KG mess and make operational the currently unused oven it hosts.

Balaji explained that he was very happy with the number of signings that the scheme has achieved. ‘Genuinely, I thought in the second week the signings would decrease, but the signings actually increased from 270 to nearly 350. That is almost 40 percent of the students in Ram-Budh and Mal A. That was when we knew that this was going very well.’

Other Initiatives

To understand more about the SSMS’ work, the EPC also spoke to Satwadhi Das, the President of the SSMS. Early this semester, SSMS formalized the rebate procedure, allowing higher degree students to opt out of the mess system easily. Another major initiative was the release of the SSMS Official app, which makes checking mess menus convenient and also has a feedback portal for the GBM to convey their opinions.

Satwadhi has held monthly meetings with the managers of the messes in order to understand and address worker issues. Under the current GC, SSMS has also held more frequent cricket matches for the SSMS workers. Internally, Satwadhi has focused on formalizing communication channels, and creating checklists for GC members to clearly convey their roles in the society. He has also initiated the process of forming charters for each of the five subcommittees i.e. Finance, Human Resources (HR), Grub, Menu, and Quality Health Safety Environment (QHSE).

Transparency

SSMS works towards for the well-being of the students, with specific regard to the mess system. Students contribute directly to SSMS via a one-time contribution, and SSMS’ work directly influences the price and quality of the food that students avail. Given the direct effect that SSMS has on students, one would hope that such a body functions transparently, and interacts frequently with the GBM. However, SSMS has been notoriously opaque in the past, with closed-off GC meets and minimal communication apart from announcements of initiatives, and Satwadhi himself acknowledged this as a concern in an interview soon after his election.

As per the Memorandum of Association of the SSMS (MoA), the GC is supposed to hold a GBM meet annually. This meet has not been held for many years. When asked about this, Satwadhi replied, ‘The problem with having a GBM meet right now is, there is no established structure… Because there is such a huge disparity between what the GBM thinks the problems are, and what the problems actually are, any communication with the GBM right now will not result in any improvement or any constructive discussion. Maybe, once we’re at a position where we can have those meets, where we need a very particular feedback on things, then we can have those meets, and then it’ll actually be constructive. For us to get to that position – when SSMS is running like a well-oiled machine, when everything else is figured out… then an open communication with the GBM will help, because that is when we’ll get to know what are the exact problems that small groups are facing.’