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New mid-day meal project on the anvil

BERHAMPUR: The largest centralised mid-day meal project for schools in Orissa is coming up in Ganjam district.

The Ganjam district administration has joined hands with the Nandi foundation of Hyderabad for the project. “It will be a unique experiment of public, corporate and NGO participation,” according to V.K. Pandian.

According to him, the project will be operational within next two-and-half months and a large number of primary school students of the district will get their mid-day meal from this project from their next academic session.

The project will have a mechanised centralised kitchen near the railway station of the city.

This kitchen meant for public benefit will be established at the G.V.V.C. Choultry which remained unutilsed. The kitchen will cost around Rs. 90 lakhs.

The food prepared at the kitchen will be served to 1,03,696 students of 692 primary schools of six blocks of Ganjam district.

The blocks to be benefited by this project are Shergarh, Kukudakhandi, Purushottampur, Rangeilunda, Chatrapur and Purushottampur.

Students of 19 primary schools of the city will also get their mid-day meal packets from the project.

Mr. Pandian said their aim was to provide wholesome tasty food to the children which would also be fortified with nutrients.

The nutritional value of the food supplied would be monitored by the ‘Global Initiative on Nutrition’. According to the district Collector, at present a child was getting at most 450 calories from the mid-day meal provided at the schools.

But the food packet prepared at the centralised kitchen of the new project would be of 650 calories. He hoped that the quality, taste and hygiene of the mid-day meal would surely help in reducing the number of primary school drop-outs.

The project would not mean end of employment for the women involved in the cooking of mid-day meal in the schools. These women would also be incorporated in the new project.

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