#archanasingh

32 year old Archana Singh, a communications professional, worked in corporate communication for 6 years, 5 years in early childhood education and then decided to launch her own food truck in Bengaluru which is special in many ways. To begin with, it is an all-women run food truck, the first of its kind in Asia. Archana started the truck recently and also runs a cafe for Hindustan Unilever Bengaluru.

Archana says of her venture's uniqueness " We are an all women run truck. We also want to employ more women in our company as we grow and expand. I wanted to be someone who employs other women. I've worked all my life and believe in women being independent, no matter which strata of society they come from. Women are also known to be hardworking and take a lot of interest in providing the right nutrition and food to their families; so I thought why not have an all-women run truck!  I wanted to combine my passion for food and cooking and in the process give women a chance to be independent and of course, do my bit back to society by offering free food to the underprivileged, once a week".

The concept of a food truck came up about 2 years ago and being a foodie herself and someone who loves cooking Archana decided to venture into this space as it seemed appealing and novel. Archana says "In a place like Bengaluru, with the traffic conditions, I decided to take good food into neighbourhoods, instead of people venturing out in search of good food and driving in the maddening traffic".

Named after the seventh sin - " gluttony", 7th sin hospitality specialises in 'glocal food'  where they do global cuisines with an Indian twist and make it into simple comfort food. Speaking of their menu , Archana elaborates " Not everyone enjoys eating out everyday and there is a craving for comfort in food at the end of the day and hence the Indian twist to the varied global flavours".They have a changing menu which has different stuff everyday. Archana says " We wanted to incorporate a surprise element in the menu which meant that one could walk in and be surprised with new offerings everyday. We have no two days that will have an identical menu - that is the variety we are looking to provide. We have reserved Wednesday as Woman’s Day when we will offer discounted rates to women".

Speaking on the free food distribution, Archana says "We want to do our bit for the society and function only 6 days a week. We have kept aside one day in a week to distribute free food at orphanages, temples, churches mosques and other places of worship. We are also be available for anyone who needs food for the underprivileged in Bengaluru; the truck will drive there and distribute free food once a week". 7th sin is looking at distributing free food to about 100 people once a week.

Challenges faced.

Speaking of the challenges, Archana says it was not easy setting it up and was in fact, very tough. Archana does not hail from a business background and she ventured into this space on her own. She adds "There were many reasons for the delay in our launch. It was tough to get the right set of mechanics and engineers to work on the re-modelling. The truck has a water tank, gas stoves, UPS, 4 burners including a Chinese burner and a hot plate, LED lights, and a microwave. It took very long to get the vehicle delivered and involved a lot of mechanical work. Also the truck had to take the weight and survive the tough roads and traffic, but yes everyday is a tackle and we are managing". "It is quite an unregulated space and thus there are no particular 'permissions' one needs to take. However following certain rules like parking only in 'designated parking spaces', not blocking traffic, keeping the local authorities informed with respect to garbage disposal etc. is something we follow. Also we prefer parking inside tech park premises, residential complexes and schools and colleges".

Future Plans.

Speaking of her future plans, Archana says "We want to focus on children's age group and parties and want to be the first choice for birthday parties for children. Parents need to only get us the parking permission and we will come over with fun, games, nutritional fun food and also give children an experience inside the truck and whip up some of their favourites. Having a young daughter myself I know the challenges parents face to get a good venue, food and entertainment all under one roof and we would like to cater to that space as well. We have an elaborate kiddy and budget friendly birthday menu in place already". Archana also hopes to operate food trucks in Chennai and Hyderabad very soon. The 7th sin sure is hard to resist.