Mid-Day meal plans move towards centralized kitchens

Nagpur: From this academic session, city’s midday meal (MDM) scheme’s implementation has been revamped with schools being bunched together as “units” so the food contractor can deliver ‘much more efficiently’. Each unit is formed of approximately 7,000 students from schools geographically close to each other.
Earlier many schools would individually handle MDM and claim reimbursements from education department. Students of Std I-VIII in government and private-aided schools are provided MDM across the country.
Gautam Gedam, MDM in charge for Nagpur district, said the revamp was to align implementation with government’s policy of having a centralized kitchen. “As per government’s decision, we need to move towards centralized kitchen concept, wherein a common kitchen supplies to many schools and thus maintains uniformity in quality and quantity. We had been asked to invite expression of interest (EOI) online and based on applications we chose the food contractors,” said Gedam.
In Nagpur, total 11 units having approximately 7,000 students each have been formed. Gedam said, “As of now, 10 contractors have been selected and handed over these units. One contractor has two units, while the remaining have one each.” He added a majority of the contractors were women self-help groups (SHG). “They have been selected on the basis of the proven ability and criteria mentioned by government,” said Gedam.
Earlier too, SHGs had secured contracts to supply food to schools, though their scope was limited to hardly 300-odd students. Under unit system, catering to 7,000 students spread across different schools will require a lot of manpower and planning on part of SHGs. Gedam said, “The 11 units are made up of just over 500 schools. Of these, 153 are managed by the civic body while the rest are under the private-aided category.”
MDM is also looking at another revamp, that of its menu. Gedam said, “We are exploring the feasibility of introducing jowar and nachni grains apart from wheat. This is however in preliminary stage and we are not sure if it will materialize as planned.”