Hyderabad:
In cities like Hyderabad, government schools are often located in congested buildings where there is neither space nor manpower available to cook hot meals in individual schools for the children. In such a situation, a centralised kitchen comes to the rescue.
Such kitchens were started 10 years ago. NDTV visited one such place, the Naandi kitchen, in Uppal area of the city. The work here begins at the crack of the dawn as the kitchen prepares food for nearly one lakh children across 1,000 government schools and madrassas. As soon as the food is prepared, it is packed in drums and containers and loaded on to different vehicles for delivery. All this is done by 8 o'clock so that the delivery is made well before the lunch time.
"When there is a special meal like sweet rice or biryani, it gets over in a jiffy. If it is plain rice or sambar, if it gets cold, one can't eat. Then some rice gets wasted," says Anasuya, a student of a government school in Begumpet, which receives food from Naandi kitchen.
Manjula, the teacher in charge of the primary wing of the school, says the food is hygienic and of good quality, and that they have no complaints. What will be served each day of the week is put up on a public display board. Eggs are served twice a week.
The only problem: they want the food to be served hot. "The food is cooked by 6:30 am or so and sent by 8:30 am. So by the time it reaches the school, it often becomes cold," said Venugopalachary, the Headmaster of the school.
So, Mr Venugopalachary, along with other schools, have come up with a plan that instead of one kitchen, there should be 3-4 kitchens in different parts of the city, so that the students get hot, cooked meal and there is no fear of it getting spoilt before it is eaten.