Tribal students get nutritious food

Kambalgaon is a non-descript village in the hinterland of Palghar district in Maharashtra and inhabitants depend mostly on agriculture and fishing for a living. One of the major projects of the Tribal Development Department--to provide steaming hot food to students in tribal schools--is being tried out in Kambalgaon, nestled in the cradle of nature.

The Eklavya Model Residential School (EMRS) is a hub of activity and about 60,000 meals are cooked every day and the food is supplied to schools in the radius of about 60 km.  “We are getting good and hot food now,” say students of a residential school.

“It is an ambitious project. We are also trying out the project in Mundhegaon in Nashik district. We are planning a centralised kitchen in Gadchiroli district,” said Tribal Development Minister Vishnu Savara. The system is working out very well. It is better than the earlier system of awarding contracts to people for supply of food. “Here, we have a strict monitoring system,” he said.

A couple of years ago, the Maharashtra government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Tata Trusts and Bengaluru-based NGO, Akshaya Patra Foundation, to set up two centralised kitchens – Annapoorna kitchens – in Mundhegaon and Kambalgaon. The unique public-private partnership aims to provide wholesome food to students at EMRS and ashram shalas in the state.

“The kitchen is funded by the Tata Trusts and Akshaya Patra is the technical advisor for the project,” said Savara, who hails from the Palghar district. The MoU was signed in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Tata Trusts Chairman Ratan Tata.

The progress at Kambalgaon, which is about 100 km from Mumbai, is being monitored by Savara as he wants to have at least one such facility in  each of the tribal districts in Maharashtra.

The Kambalgaon kitchen caters to nearly 12,000 students of EMRS-Kambalgaon and 24 other schools.

“We are serving food four times a day,” said Yogesh Choudhary, an executive who works at the Kambalgaon kitchen. This is according to a customised schedule. Quality of material and hygiene in the kitchen are checked and food is first tested in a laboratory before it is served, he added.

Children are served breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. While students studying in day schools will get lunch and snacks, children in residential schools are also given breakfast and dinner.The meal will be fresh, balanced and nutritious. The requirement of children in the age group of  five to 15 has been factored in while finalising the menu.

At least 70 people work in the most-modern kitchen to ensure regular food supply. Of them, 48 are from the Maharashtra government. Tata Trusts has posted six executives to ensure that supply chain runs efficiently.

“We strictly adhere to schedule--breakfast at 6 am, lunch at 9 am, snacks at 1 pm and dinner at 5 pm. We have 18 vehicles to deliver food to various locations,” he said.

To ensure quality material, the Tata Trusts has given the contract to a group that supplies material to Taj Group of hotels, Yogesh said.

Naresh Sakpal, a teacher working at EMRS, said that students are getting hot and fresh food. “Students are happy with the food,” he pointed out.  The kitchen has a full-fledged laboratory. “We check whether the food is good, it tastes good and meets the specified standards,” said Minit Khedekar, quality controller with the Tata Business Support Services Ltd.

“We have a proper cold storage to ensure that the kitchen is well stocked,” said Minit. Water is treated first before being used for cooking. The kitchen has a huge roti-making machine.

Either poha, upma, pao-bhaji or dal-khichadi and one egg are served for the breakfast. Lunch and dinner comprises dal, rice, roti and one curry. Evening snacks include fruit, milk or lassi. “We take care of  the nutrition needs of the students,” he said. The curry in lunch and dinner are either mixed vegetables, aloo matar and aloo jeera.

This specially designed menu is different from the earlier menu which mostly consisted of khichadi and its other variants.

Asked about the role of Akshay Patra, Savara said that it runs one of the world’s largest mid-day meal programme. It has been implementing the Centre’s mid-day meal scheme with a vision that “no child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger”.

Savara said nearly 1.27 lakh students are studying in 529 government-run ashram shalas in the state and 492 have hostels. Besides, about 2.5 lakh students study in 556 ashrama shalas run by NGOs and private institutions. 

The state government is keen on having an identical centralised kitchen in the Gadchiroli district. “This is a big challenge as Gadchiroli is a Maoist-infested district,” a senior Maharashtra government official said.

The official said that kitchens are owned by the Maharashtra government and operated by the existing kitchen staff of the tribal department. The Akshay Patra Foundation has extended its support as a technical agency in constructing the kitchen, capacity development, procurement, and stabilising the operations. Cooks have been trained in the Akshay Patra kitchens at Bengaluru for managing the centralised kitchen. For the first five years, managerial support will be provided by Tata Trusts to ensure operations are efficient and smooth.