“Healthy citizens are vital for a healthy nation”. However clichéd this
might sound, the ground reality remains an absolute fact. This is well
construed by every nation and hence each nation has developed many
programmes and schemes to achieve this objective.
Talking specifically
about India, the Central Government has initiated many Child health and
Nutrition Programmes as a step towards countering malnutrition and child
hunger. These programmes put forth the standard nutrition requirement
of children at different stages of their growth and how the requirement
can be met. One such programme is the Mid Day Meal Scheme.
It is a free school lunch programme executed in Government
schools. It is an effort to counter classroom hunger, child hunger and
malnutrition among children from the lower economic strata. It is also a
medium to address the issue of illiteracy by encouraging children to
come to school and continue their education.
The Akshaya Patra Foundation implements this Mid-Day Meal Programme
under the aegis of Central and various State Governments. It provides
freshly cooked nutritious meal to more than 9000 Government schools
across 19 locations of India. At Akshaya Patra, all types of green
vegetables and pulses are used in its mid-day meal recipes. Even though
the menu changes depending on the local palate, it always follows the
Government nutrition norms while preparing the mid-day meal.
According
to National Programme of Mid Day Meal in Schools the cooked mid-day
meals should provide 450 Calories for Primary students and 700 Calories
for Upper Primary students. It should provide 12 grams of protein for
Primary students and 20 grams for Upper Primary students; along with
adequate quantities of micro-nutrients like Iron, Folic Acid, Vitamin A
etc. Akshaya Patra is able to adequately meet these norms through its
nutrition specific recipes.
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