The city schools fail to abide by the mid day meal implementation.
By Kurian Joe
Despite the government’s efforts in making the food at the government school more nutritious and healthy, schools in the city are yet to implement the revised midday meal menu.
Early this year, the department of Primary and Secondary education issued an order revising the midday mean menu across the state. All the schools were asked to abide by the new norm and make changes in the menu by November 1, 2019.
Mrs. Nafeesunnise, Principal of JKG Government High School says “We haven’t changed the menu for the meals since the starting of the school. We provide rice and sambar from Monday to Thursdays, Mixture on Fridays wheat upma on Saturdays”
There is no change in the menu as we provide healthy and nutritious food to the children, she added.
Serving the same dishes on a continuous basis makes it monotonous for the children to eat. One of the student from the school said, “The meals are boring from Monday to Thursday as we get the same thing every week.”
“The children from age groups 14-16 years need proper amounts of carbohydrates, proteins, calcium, iron and good sources of fat like coconut water, ghee” says Dr.Silky, Nutritionist.
“Eggs, garlic and onions can be replaced by sprouts, rajma, channa, fenugreek seeds, cumin, flax seeds; pumpkin seeds are good for kids’ health says Dr. Silky.
The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has revised the fare to include more vegetables and greens, with the aim of ensuring that the food served is more nutritious.
In 2001, the Supreme Court passed an order stating “A basic entitlement of every child in every Government and Government assisted Primary Schools with a prepared Mid-day Meal with a minimum content of 300 calories and 8–12 grams of protein each day of school for a minimum of 200 days”
The facility is available only for schools that have secular policy for admissions. For primary section each meal provides 12 grams of protein and 450 calories energy and for secondary section each meal provides 20 grams of protein and 700 cal energy. The government provides the raw rice and a minimum cooking charge of Rs 3.50 per child, the remainder of the expenses is borne by NGOs and schools.
