Karnataka - Mysore   

‘Revive the concept of food bank’

B.K. Chandrashekar

MYSORE: While emphasising the need for reviving the concept of food bank, Legislative Council Chairman B.K. Chandrashekar here on Wednesday asked food scientists to identify region or locale-specific food habits in the State to ensure sustainable food and nutrition security.

“The exercise will go a long way in addressing issues concerning health, hygiene and nutrition of the schoolchildren. Also, the time has come to revive the concept of food bank to reach nutritional food to more number of children,” the Legislative Council Chairman said.

Inaugurating the Educational Intervention Programme on health, hygiene and nutrition for schoolchildren of the Association of Food Scientists and Technologists-India (AFSTI) here, Prof. Chandrashekar, under whose tenure as the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education in the S.M. Krishna government the midday meal scheme was introduced in 2003, asked the association to submit a proposal to the Planning Commission, which is currently working on a nutrition programme, to undertake a study to identify region or locale specific food habits which would support the national nutrition safety programmes.

“I will try to persuade the commission to support the study and also the educational intervention programme on health, hygiene and nutrition for schoolchildren across the country,” he said.

“The association wants Rs. 10 lakh for educational intervention programme in Mysore. In my view, the money is nothing if the significance and the outcome of the programme are considered,” he noted.

Mr. Chandrashekar said the association should extend the programme to other districts of the State after completing the project in Mysore district, as many children across the State were facing nutritional problems.

The State Government, parents, teachers and students must come together in addressing health and nutritional problems, as the scientists alone could not bring about a change, Mr. Chandrashekar observed.

“In my view, it is the obligation of the Government to locate hunger and malnutrition and take up steps to overcome them. It is its duty to address the nutritional issues,” he noted, and advocated the need for incorporating specific nutritional components in the midday meal scheme in government schools.

H.N. Mishra, president, AFSTI, spoke about the programme.

Defence Food Research Laboratory Director A.S. Bawa; UNICEF Project Officer Lakshmi Bhavani; Brittania Industries Limited vice-president Shyam Sundar; Amarjeet Singh of Nestle India; Sam Cherian of Schevaran Laboratories; and Pradeep Chaudhary of GSKCH, New Delhi, were present.

As part of the golden jubilee celebrations of AFSTI, food scientists delivered special lectures on the occasion.

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