The PM POSHAN Scheme, formerly and still popularly known as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, is a school meal programme sponsored by the central government designed to better the nutritional status of school-going children nationwide.
Although this scheme provides utensils and all requirements for providing and serving one cooked meal per child per day, school students have the flexibility to carry empty tiffin boxes from home instead of being served on plates provided by the schools.
The best practice of using tiffin boxes, adopted in most schools in Meghalaya, plays a vital role in the serving of mid-day meals under PM POSHAN and their usage has had a significant impact in the implementation of the scheme.
Children entitled to PM POSHAN meals may simply bring an empty tiffin box from home and hand them over to the cook-cum-helpers in the morning and proceed with their daily classes.
The cooks then pack the hot meal into these tiffin boxes after preparation as per the norms provided by the central government – 100g of food grains for primary and 150g of food grains for upper primary students per child per day along with vegetables, pulses and other food items as per availability.
During recess, the students receive their packed tiffin boxes back and enjoy their meals. After which, the empty boxes are kept with them and carried home after school.
This method reduces the amount of water needed to wash plates, improves the hygiene and shortens the time needed to serve meals. This method also ensures that students receive the meals as per the food norms provided by the Centre and also allows uniform serving of meals to the school children.
The state government is encouraging school students and stakeholders across Meghalaya to take up this innovative practice as an opportunity to increase efficiency in the implementation of the scheme, a press release said today.
