Bhubaneswar: At a time when high LPG cost and supply disruptions are forcing several mid-day meal (MDM) kitchens and community feeding programmes across the country to scale down or shut operations, the central scheme in Odisha as well as the state’s flagship Aahaar intervention for providing affordable cooked food to the urban poor have largely remained unaffected.And this resilience comes from a mix of traditional and innovative cooking practices. In nearly 98% of the 48,514 govt schools across the state, the MDM under PM-Poshan scheme continues to be prepared using firewood.
The MDM is provided to over 43 lakh students in these schools, from Sishu Vatika to Class X level. Although concerns over sustainability persist, the arrangement has ensured uninterrupted food supply to the students. “For mid-day meals, almost every school uses firewood because LPG is not a sustainable option. Schools procure firewood stocks for three to four months. Though often criticised for its environmental impact, firewood-based cooking has emerged as an unexpected blessing in the current times,” said general secretary of primary school teachers’ association, Charulata Mohapatra.The school and mass education department last year revised the material cost for cooking MDM to Rs 11.15 and Rs 14.74 per primary and upper primary student respectively. Of these amounts, Re 1 is allocated for fuel per upper primary student and 76 paise per primary student.Even as the department tried to replace firewood with LPG for cooking mid-day meals in school kitchens some years back, it could not be materialised owing to the high volume of food being cooked every day and high associated costs.On the other hand, Akshaya Patra Foundation provides MDM to schools in Cuttack, Khurda, Sundargarh, Puri and Nayagarh districts, and its centralised kitchens use steam-based cooking technology to prepare the meals on a large scale. It feeds 2.5 lakh students across these five districts. “We burn briquettes, which are compressed blocks of agricultural by-products like husk, to fire steam boilers in our kitchens. The steam is used to boil rice, dal and dalma. LPG is only used for tempering the dal and dalma,” said Arabinda Lenka, a general manager with the foundation. This method not only reduces dependence on LPG but also enhances efficiency and hygiene,” he said.The same model is being used to support the govt’s Aahaar meals in Cuttack, Khurda, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur and Puri districts. The foundation provides 30,000 Aahaar meals across the five districts, and of it, 20,000 meals are supplied in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar alone. Lenka said although the centralised kitchens faced LPG shortage in the beginning when commercial supply was stopped, the district administration later regulated it. Officials in the state urban development agency, which looks into Aahaar implementation, and the school and mass education department said these alternative arrangements have played a crucial role in maintaining continuity of services, especially for vulnerable populations.
