School students relish mid-day meal served by PM

VRINDAVAN : Aarti, 15, was delighted to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi serving mid-day meal to her and nearly two dozen other students at a special enclosure on the campus of the Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir here on Monday.

The occasion marked the three billionth meal of the Akshaya Patra Foundation, a non-profit organisation funded by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon). The foundation has been serving mid-day meal to schoolchildren in 12 states for several years.

The PM went to this enclosure after addressing the gathering and served food to schoolchildren.

The meal that the PM served to the students on Monday included vegetables, dal, rice and gajar ka halwa (a dessert).

The students described their experience as ‘bahut achha’ (very good).

The PM asked Annu, 14, in which class she studied and then he fed another student, Yogesh, with a spoon. “Main apne doston ko bataunga’ (I will tell my friends about it),” Chetan, 12, a student of Purv Madhyamik Vidyalaya at Nagla Kiki near Vrindavan.

“He asked me if I know cooking. When I said yes, Modiji wanted to know how I got the time to study. I told him that I always found the time to study,” Aarti said. While Rahul was elated when the PM asked which sport he loved to play, Satyendra, Neetu, Chanchal and Chandni were amused when Modi asked them if he was late in turning up to serve them food. Governor Ram Naik, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, UP ministers Shrikant Sharma, Laxmi Narain Chaudhary and Anupama Jaiswal as well as Mathura MP Hema Malini were present on the occasion.

Celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, who is associated with the Akshaya Patra Foundation, said an advisory council discussed the mid-day meal menu.

Kapoor called upon the corporate sector to come forward to help such efforts to serve healthy food to children.

“Only dal (pulses) and chawal (rice) was served initially. Once a chapatti-making machine became available, an addition was made to the menu. Then, it was decided to have sweets twice a week,” said Kapoor.