Written in February. 

The evening canteen is a new initiative developed by the Society for Student Mess Services (SSMS) which offers evening snacks at the Krishna-Gandhi and Ram-Budh messes. The English Press Club interviewed Niranjan Jahagirdar—SSMS governing council member and a key member in charge of the evening canteen—to learn more about this initiative and get an insight into the functioning of this project.

After circulating a feedback form about evening snacks, it was brought to the attention of the SSMS that there was a huge demand for evening snacks, which would be available on a daily basis. Over the course of four years, frequent attempts had been made to restart the bakery which was operated by the SSMS in the past. It was only recently that a plan to start an evening canteen—where items from the bakery would be sold at subsidised rates—was made.

Initially, a sample menu was created which was intended to be reviewed, based on the feedback provided by students, at the end of two weeks. Owing to the fact that the response was extremely positive, a cooking workshop for the mess workers was held. A chef from Jaipur was called to train the mess workers for the preparation of items such as doughnuts and burgers.

The process of fixing the prices is as follows: A tender is set out for the cheapest price offered among local vendors. A minimal labour component is added to incentivise the mess workers to work for the evening canteen. A ten per cent markup is then added to safeguard against any unforeseeable losses. With a weekly revenue of two lakhs and an average of 10,000 items being sold per week, it is clear that the highly subsidised rates have been instrumental in attracting customers.

The general consensus, among the regular customers, was that the pricing was the major selling point. Specific items such as cold coffee and burgers were received well, whereas doughnuts received largely negative responses. The menu not being published in advance, and the Pitstop being inaccessible were some of the most voiced complaints.

Addressing some of the complaints, Niranjan went on to reveal the progress that had been achieved in resolving these issues. Pitstop services have now opened up, and it operates on a pricing exclusive to the evening canteen. There is a 15-25 per cent discount on cold drinks and a fifteen per cent discount on ice creams. Furthermore, a separate section would be created on the SSMS app, which would display the weekly menu and also include a voting system for each item, much like the mess menu. This would make the feedback system highly convenient as well as efficient, as the existing metric of comparing the number of sales is not very reliable. The fact that doughnuts receive the highest number of sales, goes on to prove this.

Talking about his future plans regarding the evening canteen, Niranjan aims to expand the menu and incorporate some of the items sold at ANC. In order to achieve that, the SSMS plans on developing a team of mess workers to work exclusively for the evening canteen. The SSMS is also working towards extending the evening canteen timings so that it operates after the mess dinner hours. This is likely to be implemented by mid-April. Incorporating at least 2-3 new items in the menu on a weekly basis is also a major change the SSMS is working towards.