In an attempt to sustain the morning nutrition initiative, Subbiah Memorial Middle School in Tiruchi has launched a Breakfast Bank Scheme, an innovative effort to assure food availability for students for an extended period of time.
The initiative aims to provide essential nourishment to school students. People are asked to leave groceries that are used to prepare breakfast for students at the breakfast bank. With the implementation of the scheme, the school hopes to expand student enrollment while reducing the strain on economically backward families.
The breakfast bank is a step forward to ensure availability of food for a long period so that the school may not have to wait for the next day’s donors. Idly, idiyappam, ven pongal, sweet pongal, uppma, kichdi, chapati, curd rice, chutney, sambar, and kuruma are served to school children as breakfast.
According to S. Sivakumar, former Principal, District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), Kancheepuram, the programme gives a chance for many individuals to offer breakfast to kids on the same day. “On the occasion of their birthdays, wedding anniversaries, or any other special day, the public used to offer food by donating groceries to the school, but now that the programme is in place, many can offer on the same day.”
The breakfast scheme helps underprivileged students concentrate better and do well in their studies. “Since the majority of parents are daily wage workers and go to work early in the morning, the children are left without breakfast. But with the implementation of the breakfast programme, students arrive early to school and engage fully in learning-teaching activities,” said K. S. Jeevanathan, headmaster of the school.
“With only two days into the programme, we have received two bags of rice, six kg of oil, one kg of cashew nuts, and various spices and pulses,” Mr. Jeevanathan added.
Around 150 pupils daily benefit from the breakfast programme that was started in 2018 at Subbiah Memorial Middle School. Two years ago, the school had also started ‘Atchayapathiram’, an initiative to provide greens and leafy vegetables to the students as a supplement to the noon meals.
