Initiative to make food more nutritious with community participation
Invited meals will not be a substitute for school meals
Under the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Yojana, an innovative initiative has been taken in the schools of Chhattisgarh to make the hot meals given to students more nutritious through community participation.
According to the provision of date meal on community basis in the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman Yojana guidelines for providing food to students during school hours, it has been decided to implement it in the state of Chhattisgarh under the name of ‘Nyota Bhojan’.
The objective of Nyota Bhojan is to develop a sense of belonging among the community, to increase the nutritional value of food and to develop a sense of equality among children of all community sections.
The concept of invitation dining is based on community participation. This is completely voluntary and people of the community or any social organization can contribute complete meals to the students studying in schools or can contribute food items as additional supplementary nutrition. Invited meals will not be a substitute for school meals, but will complement the meals offered to students.
The School Education Department of the State Government has issued necessary guidelines to all the District Collectors and District Education Officers in this regard today from Mahanadi Bhawan Nava Raipur, Atal Nagar.
Detailed instructions regarding ‘Nyota Bhojan’ are given in Chapter 12 of the guidelines of Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman Yojana named ‘Tithi Bhojan’, make sure to follow it.
Secretary, School Education Department, Shri Siddharth Komal Singh Pardeshi has told the District Collectors that the concept of ‘Nyota Bhojan’ is based on a community participation.
It is based on the Indian tradition of providing food to a large number of people on various festivals or occasions such as anniversaries, birthdays, marriages and national festivals etc. Community members can provide nutritious and tasty food to children in the form of extra food items or complete meals on such occasions/festivals.
It is completely voluntary and people of the community or any social organization can contribute either a complete meal or food items in the form of sweets, snacks, fruits or sprouts etc. as additional nutritional supplement. Keep in mind that the invitation meal is not a substitute for the food provided in the school, but it is only a supplement to the food provided in the school.
To encourage community participation in the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman Yojana, the concept of Nyota Bhojan has been introduced in the state of Chhattisgarh, in which children benefiting from the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman Yojana are provided nutritious and tasty food in the form of additional food items or a complete meal. Can be provided. Under this, community members can also provide kitchen utensils.
Identification of potential donors- Donors can be identified in the community who can organize an ‘invitation meal’ in the school for at least one day in a month on rotation. To encourage donors, they should be honored in the school prayer meeting or annual day. The nature of food donation should be publicized as Mahadaan, in which ‘invitation food’ is provided to the children of the entire school or a particular class. Donors should be invited to school on the day of ‘invitation meal’. The announcement of ‘Nyota Bhojan’ should be made during the prayer. The name of the donor can also be announced in the announcement or they can be invited.
Items provided under ‘Nyota Bhojan’- The material provided may include full meals for the school, full meals for a particular class or additional nutritional food. Apart from this, ingredients for complete or additional nutrition can be provided which can be prepared by the school kitchens and served to the children. The food or material provided by the donors should be according to the food habits of that area.
In case of complete meals, pulses, vegetables and rice are to be given to the children like the regular food. Ingredients like fruits, milk, sweets, biscuits, halwa, chikki, sprouted foods which are liked by children can be selected as additional supplementary nutritional ingredients. Nutritious and tasty seasonal fruits can also be selected as supplementary nutritional ingredients.
Seasonal fruits are relatively cheap and nutritious. After asking the children in the school, a list of such food items should be prepared which the children want to eat in the ‘Nyota Bhojan’. This list should be made available to the donors, so that they can select the food items of their choice as per their budget and provide them to the children in ‘Nyota Bhojan’. Any kind of cash or check for ‘invitation meal’ will not be accepted by the school.
Frequency of ‘Nyota Bhojan’ and sense of participation- To encourage community participation in school, ‘invitation meals’ should be encouraged among community members at least one day in the middle of the month, following hygiene and sanitation protocols. At ‘Nyota Bhojan’ children can sit together and truly enjoy a meal, with additional food items.
Role of School Management Committee- Provision of ‘Nyota Bhojan’, identification of donors, time table of ‘Nyota Bhojan’ should be discussed during the meetings of the School Management Committee. The type and quantity of food items to be provided to children during ‘Nyota Bhojan’ should be discussed in the meetings. Adequate care should be taken in providing culturally acceptable foods.
‘Effort of all’ – To encourage community participation, the concept of ‘Effort of all’ should be used to increase invitation meals. Everyone’s effort can be a community effort. For this, the community should be made aware of the nutritional benefits of provision of additional food items to school children.
In this, seasonal fruits which are low cost and rich in vitamins and micronutrients can be given to children. A roster can be prepared at the school level for all community members interested in providing additional food under ‘Nyota Bhojan’.
Community members who have contributed maximum can be honored in Independence Day, Republic Day celebrations. In fact, through Sabka Prayas, all community members will try to provide food items either in the form of a complete meal or fruits, sweets etc. The concept of invitation food should be successfully made a mass movement.
Monitoring of initiatives- A register should be maintained to maintain information on the number and type of food provided, additional food items and periodicity.
Information about the invitation meal should be given in the monthly form sent from the school to the development block office. Detailed information under invitation food should be entered at the development block level on the date on which ‘invitation food’ is provided.
Its entry will be made in the state software. ‘Invitation meal’ can be of three types – full meal (for all classes of the school), partially full meal (for a particular class of the school), additional supplementary nutritional material.