TIRUCHY: Kitchens preparing nutritious mid-day meals for students have sprung back to life with schools reopening across the state. The soaring prices of vegetables, however, threatens the quality of the meals provided. To make schools self-sufficient, the district administration has started encouraging them to open 'kitchen gardens' where they can grow vegetables for the mid-day meals on the campus itself.
Around 240 schools out of the 1,578 providing the noon-meal scheme have kitchen gardens. Vegetables such as brinjal, tomatoes and green varieties are grown.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Collector S Sivarasu said, "We are encouraging all the government schools in the district to implement kitchen gardens so that they can produce vegetables on their own. The home-grown vegetables will be an additional input apart from the ones purchased outside. We are providing necessary aid such as seeds, tools, fencing, etc., to keep the system going. We hope to implement it in all the schools to ensure there is no dent in the quality of food served."
Usually, rations like dal and rice are issued directly to schools by the state government. Separate funds of approximately Rs 2 per child are allotted to each school for purchasing other essentials including vegetables. However, by growing vegetables on the campus itself, the schools would not only be self-sufficient, but also be able to provide different varieties of vegetables, officials said.
After a gap of 19 months, the noon meal scheme has resumed in the schools. A considerable increase in admission of students to government schools across the state this year has meant an increase in the number of beneficiaries under the mid-day meal scheme. In March 2020, as many as 1,60,773 students benefited from the scheme. The number increased to 1,75,638 in the last two weeks when the food was last provided at the schools.
A senior official overseeing the scheme in Tiruchy said, "A trial run of the kitchen garden was introduced before Covid, but as the kitchens remained closed due to the pandemic, we were not able to expand or increase the output as expected. Now as the situation has changed for the better, we hope to take forward the scheme and provide insights and all help necessary to create a solid system."
The district administration has also issued a set of 38 guidelines to noon meal workers. Apart from mandating use of masks and maintaining physical distancing, they have been asked not to keep the food in the open, ensure quality of food, water and eggs, etc.