Bulaksumur (KU) – UGM and Hyatt Regency Hotel of Yogyakarta continue to cooperate in providing more than 2,500 food servings per day for IDPs at UGM Student Center. This was said by Director of UGM Student Affairs, Drs. Haryanto, M.Sc., and General Manager of Hyatt Regency Yogyakarta, Nurcahyadi, to reporters on Thursday (18/ 11), at the Koesnadi Hardjosoemantri Cultural Center UGM.
Although the number of hotel guests dropped dramatically due to eruption of Merapi, the Hyatt Regency will continue to support the public kitchen needs by providing basic food ingredients and staff. "Our hotel visitors decreased by 50 percent," said Nurcahyadi.
Nurcahyadi explained that for 12 days, Hyatt provides food rations twice, namely for lunch and dinner, each about 1,200 servings. "The rest is for the volunteers working here," he said.
According to Nurcahyadi, Hyatt Regency spent approximately 10 million rupiah to provide food for IDPs every day. On the declining number of tourists in Yogyakarta currently, Hyatt plans to gradually hand over the provision of food for IDPs to UGM. However, Hyatt will continue to supply the ingredients for public kitchen and assign some cooks.
In response to the condition, Haryanto explained that UGM is ready to handle the logistics needs of IDPs by synergizing with other private groups. "Indeed, the consumption need of IDPs is fully supported by the hotel. Now, we are ready to handle the matter," he said.
To assist the public kitchen work, UGM also involves the IDPs. "We start to involve the women to help in the kitchen," said Haryanto.