Centralised kitchen to provide mid -day meals

The Statesman, March 30, 2009
Statesman News Service

BHAWANIPATNA, March 29: The foundation stone for the centralised kitchen to provide mid-day-meal to school children was inaugurated in presence of Padmashree Prof. PK Jena, former DG Mr AB Tripathy, sociologist Ms Rita Ray and Oriya film actor Bijay Mohanty here recently.
The centralised kitchen will be used to provide hygienic food to 18,000 school children under the mid-day-meal program, in partnership with the state government and Naandi Foundation.
“Vedanta Aluminium Limited, Lanjigarh , Orissa government and Naandi Foundation, Hyderabad, will help improve children’s overall physical and mental health and also reduce the dropout rate of school going children,” said Prof. Jena. Appreciating the initiative he said that it would encourage poor children belonging to the underprivileged section of society to pursue school education.
Dr Mukesh Kumar, COO, Vedanta, said: “The overall well-being of children has been a special focus of Vedanta’s development programs. This public private partnership will improve the education level in this tribal area and help school children to concentrate better on classroom activities”.
Vedanta Aluminum Limited signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nandi foundation and the state government to provide mid-day-meals to school children from Class I to Class VIII in the government-run schools in Lanjigarh. Vedanta Aluminium Limited will build the centralised kitchen, where the food will be cooked and sent to schools by the Naandi Foundation. About 18000 school going children from nearly 253 government schools in Kalahandi district, from Class I to Class VIII, shall get quality, nutritious, fresh-cooked noon meals in their schools. Food shall be cooked in this centralised kitchen and served hot at the respective schools.
Ms Ray, renowned sociologist, said that the program would reduce gender disparity in this tribal area. Mr AB Tripathy also appreciated Vedanta’s initiative to enhance the educational level of children in this area. Mr Bijay Mohanty said that Vedanta’s social investment might be its success mantra. Mr Samiron Sarkar, head-CSR, VAL took the members of CSR Advisory Board to the VAL intervened villages like Rengopali, Basantpada and Harekrushnapur for taking stock of the various developmental initiatives of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). During their visit they interacted with the people rehabilitated by the company and congratulated the company for rehabilitating the tribal people in a meaningful manner.
Education and nutrition have always been one of the major concerns of Vedanta’s Corporate Social Responsibility programs. The company is running 39 childcare centres and 400 Anganwadi centres, where children are provided with pre-school education and nutritious food in various villages.