VIJAYAWADA: The state government is contemplating the inclusion of millets in midday meals across the state in a bid to provide a more nutritious lunch to students. The proposal comes in the wake of the Telangana government having launched a pilot project to include the small-seeded grasses to school meals with the help of Akshaya Patra Foundation.
Akshaya Patra serves midday meals in four districts of Andhra Pradesh, i.e. 370 government schools and anganwadi centres, touching 74,409 children every working day.
The midday meal in most of the state’s schools is taken care of by self help groups. They serve over 7 lakh students dal, vegetables and rice every day and an egg thrice a week.
Akshaya Patra supplies vegetable rice, khichdi and a banana or groundnut chikki instead of egg. Officials are now looking at the possibility of including millets in the diet. The intake of millets in coastal and northern Andhra is less when compared to Rayalaseema and Telangana. According to sources, the Education Department has proposed the setting up of a Nutrition Committee to identify the right millets and a roadmap to incorporate them in the regular meal.
As the midday meal is mostly taken care of by self help groups, the state plans to supply cooked millet items directly to schools so that it can be served to students along with their meal.
At schools where the meal is being served by Akshaya Patra, the government intends to tie up with the foundation as done in Telangana. School Education Department Commisioner K Sandhya Rani told TNIE officials have been chewing on the proposal for some time now. “Adding millets to the regular meal will help us raise the nutrition levels of the food being served to children,” she said.