Will they gobble up' Goa's mid-day meals?

PANAJI
Aiming at spreading its wings in Goa, Akshay Patra Foundation has submitted a strategic partnership proposal to the government with a road map to supply mid-day meals in schools across the State.
After implementing the mid-day meal programme in over 13,000 across 11 States in the country, Akshay Patra Foundation now intends to replicate the same model in Goa in partnership with the government.
The Foundation primarily has sought support from the government on three aspects - land to set up kitchens; capitals costs for construction of kitchen block, equipment and vehicles for transporting meals; and recurring costs every year.
Proposing to set up two centralised kitchens initially with a feeding capacity of 50,000 each, the Foundation has stated: "The land for setting up a centralised kitchen would require an approximate 1.5-2 acres. We would request Goa Government to consider this and identify a few locations in South and North Goa. We have a feasibility team which would visit these locations, conduct survey and zero down on a location based on soil conditions, road connectivity and much more."
Pointing out that the anchor patron for the kitchens in Goa is the State Government, the proposal stated: "All the capital expenditure requirements is to be supported completely by Goa Government."
Interestingly, setting up two kitchens would cost the State Government Rs 24.48 crore.
As far as the state-of-the-art kitchens are concerned, cooking would be carried out in mechanised, steam-heated cauldrons custom-built to reduce the cook to consume time.
As far as logistics and mid-day meal distribution is concerned, special purpose vehicles would be used.
"Cooked food is packed into modern insulated containers that are made of stainless steel on the inside and loaded into these custom-built vehicles, which have racks to store the containers in an orderly manner. The vehicle is heat insulated to ensure that the food remains hot when it is delivered to the schools. Using a fleet of vehicles, food is transported to schools within 20-km radius of the kitchen", stated the proposal.
The proposal also requested the State Government to sponsor a fleet of 20 vehicles per kitchen for food distribution. However each Tata 407 Twin Tyre vehicle would cost Rs 18.30 lakh and a fleet of 20 vehicles would cost the State Government Rs 3.66 crore.
Presently, 105 self-help groups and six parent-teacher associations are engaged in providing mid-day meals in schools. Nearly 1.60 lakh students across 1,501 schools are benefitted from the same.
As far as the cost per mid-day meal is concerned, it is Rs 6.11 per meal for primary and Rs 7.26 for upper primary.
Though the State Government has neither accepted nor rejected the proposal of Akshay Patra Foundation, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said that the primary aim of the scheme is to provide proper nutrition to the children. He has also assured on the Floor of the House that the interest of SHGs providing mid-day meals would be protected.