As a teacher I have seen a huge difference in the attendance after the mid day meal scheme was introduced.Many children come from low-income families and may not have access to adequate food at home. A mid-day meal provided children with a nutritious meal that they may not otherwise have access to. This helped in improving their overall health and well-being and can also reduce absenteeism due to illness. Meal donation also provided children with necessary energy and nutrients to stay focused and engaged in their studies.Children who are hungry and malnourished are more likely to have difficulty in concentrating and retaining information in the classroom. School meal programme also enables students to perform really well in school as all their attention was in class rather than feeling hungry. As the students were sat down to be fed they used to start interacting with one another and enjoy themselves which promoted socialization among children. This helped them learn a lot of valuable skills and promoted a very inclusive and positive environment in the school.
Many parents were initially unsure about the scheme as they thought they have to pay for it as well, they were time and again reassured that this is free of cost. Some parents always come in and talk to the volunteers about how grateful they were as they could never feed their children properly and were positive that they would become malnourished. Many families who used to send kids to work started sending them to school as a fresh warm meal was being provided to them free of cost. Parents were really happy as their child was finally able to study and they hoped to have a better future. When non-veg was added to their meal there were some retaliations from parents as they thought it would go against their religion ,we assured them the benefits and now they are happy with the meal.
This was a big change for everyone as teachers were also not quite sure about the programme ,there were too many doubts ,confusions about the mid day meal programme. The NGO volunteer helped us understand the scheme better and even created awareness among the parents so that they would start sending their children to the school. We saw a rise in admission as one meal a day was also very difficult for most families to arrange for their kids. Some parents jokingly used to say we wish we also had some scheme such as this for adults.
