Vedanta launches 8th Mid-Day Meal Kitchen for Under-Privileged Children in India

Mid-Day Meal Kitchens to benefit 250,000 under-privileged children in about 3,000 schools in Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Orissa

40,000 school going children of 264 schools of Korba, Chattisgarh, will start receiving hot, hygienic and nutritious mid-day meal as their school open after vacation, which should be this month itself. With the launch of Hi-Tech kitchen at Korba, Vedanta group now has 8 such Hi-Tech centralized Kitchens, providing hot mid-day meal to about 250,000 school going children of about 3,000 rural schools in Rajasthan, Orissa and Chattisgarh.

Vedanta had first set-up these Hi-Tech kitchens in the districts of Chittorgarh, Udaipur, Bhilwara in the State of Rajasthan and now has 6 such hi-tech centralized kitchens in Rajasthan, benefiting 180,000 under-privileged children in 2,400 rural schools. Recently, former Hon'ble President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam inaugurated mid-day meal kitchen at Lanjigarh, Orissa, which will benefit 20,000 under-privileged children of 273 rural schools, and now another hi-tech kitchen at Korba, Chattisgarh, that would benefit 40,000 under-privileged children in 264 schools.

Vedanta has partnered with the State Governments of Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Orissa for the Mid-Day Meal scheme with the prime objective of improving the health status of children from Class I to VIII in government aided schools, given that 41% of the children in India are under-weight. A study conducted by the World Bank at Chittorgarh assessing the mid-day meal scheme highlighted that enrolment in schools improved by 64% and an increase in the enrolment of girls by 58% alone.

The impact of mid-day meal program has been immense. Besides improving the health of these children, it has also improved the attendance in the school and also the enrolment of students. The uniqueness of mid-day meal program lies in its easy scalability and the like-mindedness of the partners. This public private partnership between the State Government, Naandi Foundation and Vedanta group has come up as a social commitment to provide quality meals on time in the remotest schools. The government brings in the food grains as per the budget allocated per child (this varies from state to state); Naandi Foundation - NGO, is implementing partner and Vedanta group has committed one time capex investment for setting up all these hygienic hi-tech centralized kitchens along with quality control measures on food, delivery and service.

Vedanta group has vision to set-up 20 kitchens in the coming four years and reach out to over 15 lakh under-privileged children.