MID DAY MEALS IN SCHOOLS

SCHOOL MEALS

A school meal is a meal, typically lunch, which is served to students at school. This meal is served according to the academic schedule of each school. Lunch times usually run from 11 AM to 1 PM with students typically allotted 20 minutes of actual eating time. Depending on enrollments, activities, and other variables, schools usually have one to four lunch periods. Some schools offer breakfast programs with serving times ranging from 7 AM to 9 AM. Over the decades, school meals have changed with the times. Trends, nutritional values and economics have all played roles in shaping each program. Marketing and a push for healthier meals are two major contributions to the program this decade.

INDIA

Under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), government schools and partially aided schools, along with Anganwadis, provide midday meals to the students attending such institutions, known as the Midday Meal Scheme. The meals served are free of cost and meet guidelines that have been set by the policy. The history of the program can be traced to 1925, making it one of the oldest free food programs for school children.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation, which demonstrates a public-private partnership in midday meal programme is the world's largest school meal programme run by an NGO. Akshaya Patra started serving 1500 children in the year 2000 and today it serves freshly cooked lunches to over 1.2 million hungry school children in 8 states in India everyday.

A single afternoon lunch usually contains a cereal which is locally available, made in a way acceptable to the prevailing local customs. Vegetables cooked as curry or soups and a portion of milk is allotted for each child. The menu is occasionally varied to appeal to students.

Children in private schools usually carry their own lunch boxes. Many schools also have canteens, and street food vendors can often be found in front of the school campuses.

Midday Meal Scheme

The Midday Meal Scheme is the popular name for school meal programme in India which started in the 1960s. It involves provision of lunch free of cost to school-children on all working days. The key objectives of the programme are: protecting children from classroom hunger, increasing school enrolment and attendance, improved socialisation among children belonging to all castes, addressing malnutrition, and social empowerment through provision of employment to women. The scheme has a long history, especially in the state of Tamil Nadu introduced statewide by the then Chief Minister K. Kamaraj in 1960s and later expanded by M. G. Ramachandran government in 1982 has been adopted by most of the states in India after a landmark direction by the Supreme Court of India on November 28, 2001. The success of this scheme is illustrated by the tremendous increase in the school participation and completion rates in Tamil Nadu.

History

One of the pioneers of the scheme is Madras that started providing cooked meals to children in corporation schools in the Madras city in 1923. The programme was introduced in a large scale in 1960s under the Chief Ministership of K. Kamaraj after visiting Sourashtra Higher Secondary School – Madurai, were this program had been implemented by liguistic minority people since 1922. The first major thrust came in 1982 when Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Dr. M. G. Ramachandran, decided to universalise the scheme for all children up to class 10. Tamil Nadu’s midday meal programme is among the best known in the country. Less known, but equally interesting is the history of Pondicherry, which started universal school feeding as early as 1930.

There is an interesting story about how K. Kamaraj got the idea of a noon meal scheme. He saw a few boys busy with their cows and goats. He asked one small boy, "What are you doing with these cows? Why didn't you go to school?" The boy immediately answered, "If I go to school, will you give me food to eat? I can learn only if I eat." The boy's retort sparked the entire process into establishing the midday meal programme.

Several other states of India also have programmes. The most notable among them is Gujarat that has had it since the late 1980s. Kerala started providing cooked meals in schools since 1995 and so did Madhya Pradesh and Orissa in small pockets. On November 28, 2001 the Supreme Court of India gave a landmark direction to government to provide cooked meals to all children in all government and government assisted primary schools. The direction was resisted vigorously by State governments initially, but the programme has become almost universal by 2005. Recently Govt. of India has launch new Mid day Meal Scheme Website i.e. http://mdm.nic.in

REFERENCES

1.     http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/Education/article/709051 Toronto Star, Students lack healthy food options

2.     Canada's Children Need a National Nutrition Program

3.     http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/securit/kitchen-cuisine/school-lunch_repas-ecole-eng.php Health Canada: Be Food Allergy Aware When Packing School Lunches

4.     TV Newscast 2008-10-09, MTV3 channel

5.     1872: Daily life in Schools: Free School dinner in Kuopio. City of Kuopio, 1997.

6.     Kela's information on meal subsidy(in Finnish). Retrieved November 7, 2010

7.     "Sandwiches, Mais Non". The Age (Australia). November 17, 2009. Retrieved October 31, 2010.

8.     "School Meals Around the World". The Guardian (UK). March 30, 2005. Retrieved October 31, 2010.

9.     "School Lunches in France: Nursery-School Gourmets". Time.com. February 23, 2010. Retrieved October 31, 2010.

10.           "School Lunches Around the World". AOL Kitchen Daily. Retrieved October 31, 2010.

11.           "School Dinners Around the World". BBC (UK). March 12, 2005. Retrieved October 31, 2010.