Akshaya Patra Foundation to serve millets in midday meals

The Akshaya Patra Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR), Nutri Hub and Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) to include millets in midday meals.

Following health issues and malnutrition among schoolchildren post Covid, the foundation has decided to include millets in the midday meals’ menu. As explained by the representatives of the foundation, the same will be implemented in a month or two.

Anant Arora, chief sustainability and communication officer, Akshaya Patra Foundation, said: “We will begin including millets in the schools we are associated with in Karnataka and the same will be extended to other states at a later stage.”

Inclusion of millets in the midday meals is one of the directions given by the Union Education Ministry under the PM Poshan Abhiyaan. It can be recalled that the foundation had served millets to schoolchildren at a few schools in Bengaluru Urban a few years ago on a pilot basis.

Speaking at the occasion, Dr B Dayakar Rao, Chief Executive Officer of Nutri Hub and Principal Scientist of ICAR, said: “Millets have now become the super food of the affluent class. Millets are the answer to several health issues caused by an unhealthy lifestyle.”