Mid-day meals at MCD schools to get children-friendly makeover

New Delhi: Oats cookies, fruit, kheer, and sambar rice will soon become part of the mid-day meals served to children in MCD schools, with the civic body planning a more varied menu across its nearly 1,500 schools from November, officials said on Wednesday.

They added that the new agencies that will run its school kitchens have been asked to add at least one “special” item to the regular meal every day to make nutritious food more appealing to children.

Oatcakes and cookies are among the options being considered, apart from fruit and kheer, officials at the civic body said. “We are asking the companies to do something additional. Children get bored if they keep eating the same thing. If the same ingredients are made into something like a cookie or prepared in a way that children enjoy, they are more likely to eat it,” a senior MCD official said.

The revised menu will include sambar rice and continue meals being served currently, such as puri-aloo, dal-rice, and chole-rice. The agencies will also be asked to introduce more variety in the preparations, with halwa made of wheat and ragi to be served twice a week, officials said.

“On days when puri-aloo is served, children like it. We want them to eat everything, so the effort is to change the preparation rather than simply remove an item from the menu,” another official said.

The changes come as the MCD prepares to hand over its school kitchens to a new set of agencies. The tender was floated around two months ago and surveys of shortlisted kitchens are underway. Officials said 13 new vendors are expected to come in, and the agencies are likely to be finalised by next week. The civic body has also asked the agencies to work within their available kitchen infrastructure while introducing the

additional items.

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Mansi Jagani

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