LFC BHUBANESWAR| JANUARY 2026
Rini and Jinnie Saren have been part of the Local Food Club (LFC) long enough to remember what it felt like when it was still finding its footing.
Jinnie signed up first. She had been following ChefTZac on social media for some time through her interest in food systems, and soon found her way to one of the early LFC meetups in June 2025 in Bhubaneswar. She remembers how people arrived carrying dishes and stayed back for the conversations. Food was shared alongside stories and recipes. Then, in the following month, when the Pune chapter of LFC began, Rini followed, encouraged by the way Jinnie had spoken about the meetups. Soon, between Bhubaneswar and Pune, the sisters began showing up wherever they were. Over time, it became their monthly ritual, attending almost every LFC meetup.
They grew up moving cities frequently, their kitchen shifting with every move. Their mother, Champa, picked up local flavours wherever they lived, folding them into everyday cooking. So, when the sisters began bringing food to the meetups, those memories travelled with them. At one of the early gatherings, Jinnie brought jackfruit pitha—a rice-based preparation sweetened with jaggery and jackfruit pulp—innate to their Santali roots. Bringing the dish to the LFC felt personal—a way of sharing where they came from without having to explain much.
As the months went by, their dishes began to form a pattern. Noodles for a Friendship Day meetup, inspired by the ones their mother used to make for their classmates. A simple leftover roti preparation that reminded them of childhood evening snacks. No matter the theme, the food always traced its way back to their mother and their roots.
Champa passed away in August 2021. Since then, cooking has become one of the ways the sisters remember her. “We don’t have our mum’s recipes documented” Rini shared, “though we wish we had. It’s via faint memories, familiar tastes, and sometimes checking with dad is how we try to recreate them, or at least, something close enough”. At the meetups, they shared several stories of Champa’s cooking. About how her recipe for chana was always in demand at their community picnics. How her mutton preparation was so memorable that their father’s old colleagues speak of it fondly until this day. Sharing these memories at the Local Food Club felt cathartic because the room always made space for them, responding with attention and care.
As months went by, the sisters watched the LFC grow in members as well as in purpose. Potlucks expanded into walks and workshops. Conversations began to focus closely on local food systems, seasonality, and the people behind everyday meals.
In Odisha, food is deeply tied to ritual, ecology, and health, and seeing those connections reflected in the club’s direction felt familiar. The street food walks, in particular, stayed with them in how it brought the history, labour, and taste of their city into the same frame.
As the Local Food Club has grown, their understanding of food and its impact, the sisters say, has grown alongside it. What remains unchanged is the reason they continue to show up. A shared table. Food passed from hand to hand. Stories exchanged without any hurry. A sense that this is worth returning to, again and again.
As they look ahead, what they hope for the Local Food Club feels closely tied to why they keep coming back in the first place. A deeper attentiveness to where food comes from, to what grows locally and seasonally, to the choices people make every day, and what those choices do to bodies, landscapes, and communities. They imagine the Local Food Club continuing to be a place where enjoyment and intention sit side by side. A place where community members feel encouraged to take what they learn back into their own kitchens and neighbourhoods.