A short entrance note / 06
Who sets the table?
Food, provision and the rules that decide who eats.
A meal is an arrangement.
Breakfast looks private, but it depends on farms, shops, kitchens, water, fuel and someone’s time. A free breakfast programme makes that arrangement public: it says a child’s morning should not depend on a household’s purchasing power.
Open object: Mothers Support Breakfast Program ↗A document at the counter.
A ration card turns a promise into a procedure. It records who may buy and how much. The card can protect a household, and it can also exclude one. Read the document beside the meal it is supposed to guarantee.
Open object: Amul and the milk cooperative ↗
A cooperative is not a state.
Amul is owned by its producer members, not by a state. It shows that collective ownership can take market forms and still raise the question of control. Who sets the price, who sits on the board, and who does the least visible work?
Open object: Ration card: a household’s entitlement ↗