Adamya Chetana’s Annapoorna mid-day meal scheme

Source: News Bharati      Date: 10/3/2011 3:02:02 PM

Food, clothing and shelter are the three basic needs of a human being among which food holds prime importance. Food is the fuel for effective functioning of our body and if this requirement is not satisfied, life becomes miserable. A large section of Indian society is still deprived of this basic requirement and has to struggle hard just for a piece of chapatti. With a view to provide nutritious food to the school children belonging to underprivileged section of society, Smt Girija Shastry Memorial Trust, under its Adamya Chetana Project, has initiated Annapoorna mid-day meal scheme that reaches over 2 lakh children in thousands of schools across Bangalore, Hubli, Gulbarga and Jodhpur.
The nutritious tasty meals are hygienically prepared at well-equipped kitchens set up specially for this project. The meals are packed in stainless steel containers and distributed to schools in customized vehicles. The teachers and volunteers serve the hot meals in schools. The meal varies everyday- rice and sambar, curd rice, pongal, bisi-bele-bhaat, sweet pongal, daal, roti, daliya, etc. The inclusion of daal, vegetables, jaggery, condiments makes the meals nutritious. When the food is cooked for thousands, each and every penny counts. For Adamya Chetana, the huge numbers have been converted to students’ advantage. Costs have been brought down, thanks to economies of scale. Voluntary participation has further reduced the costs. Annapoorna has brought down the per meal cost to less than Rs 2 (excluding rice/wheat). The children, therefore, receive a variety of good quality meals.
Annapoorna has created unique processes for preparing and delivering hot mid-day meals to thousands of children across hundreds of schools. Maintaining high standards of safety and hygiene every single day, getting feedback about quality, quantity, taste and time of delivery from every school are distinctive features that have made Annapoorna a unique brand in the minds of the socially concerned. This feedback forms the basis of continuous process and product improvement, which is the hallmark of Annapoorna. A quality lab assists in maintaining the quality parameters that are critical for a mid-day meal programme.
When eight tonnes of rice get cooked in four hours, when four tankers of sambar roll out before the lunch hour has begun, when two tonnes of vegetables get washed, cleaned and cut by 70 pairs of hands, when 250 kgs of masala tingle the taste buds of thousands of children, when 3000 stainless steel vessels jostle for vehicle space, when 1000 coconuts provide nutritious supplement in the sambar, when 30 vehicles carry wholesome food to 300 schools in busy Bangalore traffic, it’s been a continuous challenge. And a great learning. The trust is successfully using non-conventional eco friendly technologies like gasifiers for cooking, plastic free packing and chemical free ingredients in cooking. These add value to the process and promote these practices. All the above has been achieved by managing a delicate balance of budgets, time and operations.
However, the money holds a nuclear position in running such schemes. Therefore, donations are welcome from philanthropist donors for making the drive more effective.
Contact:
Adamya Chetana (Smt Girija Shastry Memorial Trust)
Head Office, No 84, Ranoji Rao road,
Basavanagudi
Bangalore, 560 004, India
Phone no: 080 26568483
Contact Person: Tejaswini Madam
Email: tejaswini.act@gmail.com
Vmuralidhar_77@yahoo.com
How to reach
By air: Bangalore International Airport is 40 km away from the heart of the city.
By train: Bangalore Majestic, Bangalore Cantonment (8 km to Majestic) and Yeshwanthpur (10 km away from Majestic) are the three main stations in Bangalore. Bangalore Majestic is connected to all major cities in India.
By bus: KSRTC buses connect all cities in Karnataka to Bangalore. Many super deluxe buses are also available to Bangalore from Hyderabad, Cochin, Trivandrum, Chennai, Mumbai, Goa and Mysore.
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