KAKINADA: Besides midday meals, as many as 5,000 students of 40 government schools spread across Thondangi and U Kothapalli mandals in Kakinada district will soon be served nutritious breakfast too.Under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative, Aurobindo Pharma Foundation (APF) has offered Rs 9.60 crore and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hare Krishna Movement Charitable Trust (HKMCT) to carry out the programme for a period of four years. Kakinada Special Economic Zone has allocated two acres for the project.
APF directors K Nityananda Reddy and P Sarath Chandra Reddy said the project will begin in November itself. Students from 38 villages in the two mandals will be provided idli, puri and upma as breakfast daily before school begins. HKMCT is establishing a modern kitchen at Perumallapuram in Thondangi mandal. A gas boiler unit has also been installed.
The decision to provide breakfast was taken after the school education authorities noted that several students were anaemic and suffering from malnutrition even though nutritious food is being provided to them under the midday meals scheme.The students in the two mandals, primarily belong to fishermen community and economically weaker sections.
Teachers took the matter to the notice of the education department. Following this, mandal education officers invited local NGO and firms to make arrangements for providing nutritious breakfast to students.
Later, APF conducted a survey to understand the gravity of the situation and submitted a report, informing the firm’s willingness to provide breakfast to government school students of Thondangi and U Kothapalli mandals under CSR.