Foundation Stone Laying of Centralized Kitchen for Mid Day Meal at Lanjigarh

Orissadiary.com, 28th March, 2009

Report by Orissadiary correspondent; Lanjigarh: The Foundation Stone for building the Centralized Kitchen to provide Mid Day Meal (MDM) to school children was inaugurated in presence of Padmashree Prof. P.K. Jena, Ex-DG, CSIR; Mr. A B Tripathy, Former DGP, Orissa; Mr. Bijay Mohanty, noted Oriya Cine Star and Ms. Rita Ray, Head of Department of Sociology, Utkal University. The Centralized Kitchen will be used to provide hygienic & nutritious food for approx. 18000 school children under the Mid Day Meal program, in partnership with Government of Orissa and Naandi Foundation.
“Vedanta Aluminium Limited, Lanjigarh , Orissa Government and Naandi Foundation, Hyderabad, A P, shall help in overall improvement of physical and mental health of children and also reduction of 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 the society. It would also contribute to the learning ability of children. At the same function, 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 Nandi foundation & Orissa State Government on February 13, 2009 at Bhawanipatna to provide Mid Day Meal to school children from Class I to Class VIII in the Govt . of Orissa run schools in Lanjigarh. Vedanta Aluminium Limited will build the centralized kitchen, where the food provided by the GOO will be cooked and sent to schools by Naandi Foundation. About 18000 school going children from nearly 253 Government schools in Kalahandi District from Class I standard to Class VIII standard shall get quality, nutritious, fresh cooked noon meal in their schools. Food shall be cooked in this centralized kitchen and served hot at the respective schools.
Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Rita 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 educational level of children in this area. Mr. Bijay Mohanty one of the Leading Actors of the state 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 persons, 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 centers and 400 Anganwadi Centres, where children are provided pre-school education and nutritious food in different villages.