AL - Midday Meal

Question 1

What is mid-day meal?

Answer 1

The mid-day meal or the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM Poshan) is an Indian School lunch program that increases the nutritional health of students studying in government and government aided schools across the Country.
It comes under the umbrella scheme of Integrated Child Development Service Scheme or ICDS.
It addresses two main pressing issues in the Indian society - Hunger and Education.

Question 2

Objectives of Mid-day meals.

Answer 2

The objectives of the mid-day meals are:

1. To increase enrollment of students coming from disadvantaged and underprivileged sections of society.
2. To increase attendance of students in government and government aided schools.
3. To retain students from class 1 to 8 so that they can get their basic education and have a better future.
4. To increase nutritional health of students in the elementary stage especially in the drought affected areas.
5. To address hunger and malnutrition and increase socialisation among castes.

Question 3

Features of Mid-day meals

Answer 3

The salient features of Mid-day meals are:

1. The State’s Food and Drug Administration can collect samples of the mid-day meals to test their nutritional value at any moment.
2. The school may use school finances upon exhaustion of the mid-day meal funds which will later be reimbursed.
3. Mid-day meals should only be served on working days of the school.
4. Mid-day meals should only be served on the school campus.
5. If the meal cannot be cooked due to unforeseen circumstances, the students will be given allowances.
6. Two or three adult members need to taste the food after it has been cooked.
7. Food items for preparation of the mid-day meal should have an AGMARK stamp on them
8. There should be proper cooking and sanitary kitchen facility for preparing the mid-day meals
9. Classes 6 to 8 were included in this scheme in 2007 from 3479 educationally backward blocks. (EBB)
10. The State’s steering-cum Monitoring Committee SSMC will ensure that the mid-day meal provided has proper nutritional value.

Question 4

Advantages of Mid-day meals

Answer 4

The advantages of Mid-day meals are:

1. Satisfies Student Hunger- Helps in satisfying the basic need of hunger of the students and increase their nutritional health.
2. Increases student enrollment
3. Increases student retention
4. Avoids classroom hunger - Helps children to focus on studies and not be distracted by hunger.
5. Helps children concentrate

Question 5

Disadvantages of Mid-day meals

Answer 5

They are:

1. Delayed payments - The people who cook the food may not be paid timely or attractively and this can cause faulty productivity.
2. Poor quality of food - The food has to be cooked in large quantities and may sometimes be of low quality or contain worms.
3. Wastage of food - Contaminated food may cause students to throw it away and this in turn causes wastage of food and it’s ingredients.
4. Lack of nutrition - When food has to be cooked in large quantities it may lose its nutritional value.
5. Embezzlement of money - Fake enrollments are on the rise so as to obtain more money for the mid-day meal funds and use it elsewhere.

Question 6

Tithi Bhojan

Answer 6

Tithi Bhojan is a community participation program where food is provided to students on special occasions like birthdays, marriages, anniversaries, Festivals or important national holidays. This creates a sense of belonging between the society and the students. It is a completely voluntary action that the people contribute. It can be a full meal or in the form of snacks like fruits, sprouts, sweets or namkeens. It is not a substitute for mid-day meals but complements and supplements it.