Mar 14, 2013

Seminar held for mid-day meal officials

BANGALORE: What can and can't the mid-day meal officials do when it comes to the food provided from Akshaya Patra was the theme for the day-long seminar held recently at the ISKCON premise. Around 170 mid-day meal officials from all over Karnataka participated in the seminar that was organized by the Akshaya Patra Foundation in association with the Department of Public Education.

"The seminar has been organized to educate the officials at taluk and district level about the hygiene and other factors they should take into consideration, when it comes to mid day meal that reaches them. We are also educating them about implications of ignorance under the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA)," said Vinay N Kumar, general manager (operations), Akshaya Patra.

The seminar, titled 'Suraksha', focused on FSSA, the implications for the midday meal scheme and the challenges in implementation. "Although the act has been in place since the year 2006, there is not much awareness among the stakeholders. There is no clarity on how can it be used as a consumer. But it strictly talks about implications that one might have to face as a food establishment in case of any injury," said Mamatha Mishra, chief executive officer, Health First, a service providing organization, which is looking into the mid-day meal process to make it time, health and cost effecting through automation.

The mid-day meal quality manual that was launched at the seminar will be distributed to all the government schools which receive mid-day meals from the foundation. The quality manual has guidelines for the teachers and other implementing authorities on precautionary methods to be adopted, safety procedures to be followed while handling a mid-day meal and the necessary actions to be taken during an emergency.

No comments:

Post a Comment