A Mother's thoughts About Classroom Hunger

There is nothing more satisfying than feeding a hungry child. I am a mother and when I am able to give hot and tasty food to my son when he is hungry, I am the happiest. When he is away from home, I wonder whether he has eaten, I wonder about his ability to feed himself. He is just six, and at home I take care that he finish what he has been given.

But when at school, there is no mother who will keep on checking whether he has finished his snack, or completed eating his lunch. His lunch would only be half eaten and he would say that the food was cold and unappetizing. I then wish I could be a helicopter mom and could hover around there inspecting him eating and compelling him to finish his food. Kids don’t understand that food is essential for proper growth, for developing immunity and to get a proper attention span while sitting in class.

I can tempt him with hot and his favorite food on returning home. But how to keep him happy and hunger-free at school? Now he has classes only until noon, but from next year he would be there till two fifty in the evening. I worry about his hunger already. But if I somebody could assure me that he would eat his lunch properly and he won’t be starving by the time he reach home, I can be happy. The lunch, which I would prepare at 6.30 in the morning, won’t taste as good b noon. And he would refuse to eat it.

But what if he was served hot and tasty food at school? What if the authorities saw to it that classroom hunger was eliminated? I would be the happiest.

Even though Akshay Patra Foundation which provides mid-day meal to many school kids all over the country, it is not involved in the activities of my son’s school and I am plotting on ways on how I can provide hot and tasty food to my son during lunch hours. May be I can slip in his lunch box during lunch hours and bribe his teacher to make sure that he ate his lunch!

Blogadda, as part of its blogger responsibility activities is sponsoring to feed a child with every blog post that a registered member writes on the theme. This post is written with that aim. I request my fellow bloggers to participate and use this opportunity to feed a child. Come on folks, let us eliminate Classroom hunger!

I am going to #BlogToFeedAChild with Akshaya Patra and BlogAdda.

With an Aim to Feed a Hungry Child

When I think about food, the first name that comes to my mind is that of my grandmother. It was at her house that a hungry kid, returning home from school calmed her raging hunger. She would be awaiting me and seeing me at a distance would go into the kitchen and keep the food ready for me. Her first order would be to wash my hands, legs and face and then I should eat without talking. Food was to be respected and we should give thanks to God for feeding us. That were her words.

I will remember forever the taste of her food, her dal, her salted mangos and her vegetable curries. My mom also was a good cook, but nothing compared to the taste of Grand mom’s cooking. The hunger that it quenched made it tastier. After food, I would rush to join other kids to play our favorite games or head to the library to find a new book to read.

I guess, there are millions of such kids who return hungry from school eager to devour whatever they get hold of. In this age of micro families, grandmothers are missing and so are the sumptuous meals on return from school. Money spent at fast food joints, bakeries are increasing day by day, and the healths of kids are deteriorating day by day.

Lunch is an important meal of the day and is supposed to be the most nutritious one in the whole day. Kids who eat lunch properly are healthy and concentrate more on their studies. Attention span of a hungry child is very less and teachers find it hard to teach hungry kids.

Aksha Patra Foundation strives to eliminate classroom hunger and Blogadda promises to feed a child for every blogpost that is written by member bloggers. I request my friend bloggers to make use of this excellent opportunity to help Akshay Patra feed a child for an entire year.

There is no greater good than feeding a hungry child.

 I am going to #BlogToFeedAChild with Akshaya Patra and BlogAdda.

Help feed a hungry child!

Source

Only the one who has experienced it knows the pang of hunger. In Mahabharata, we come across the Akshaya Patra, which ensured a never-ending supply of food to the Pandavas who were in exile. Given to Yudhisthira by Lord Surya, to facilitate him to feed the many number of sages and members of his family, the Akshaya Patra was a boon to the Pandavas.

If we had such a vessel that could end the food needs of today, there won’t be hunger deaths in any corner of the earth. Everywhere there would be happy faces. there won’t be greed, there won’t be wars, there won’t be enmity. Love will reign throughout the world.

When you feed a child, not only do you help him grow, but also you are molding a happy and contented future citizen of the world. There is an greater eagerness in the child to learn and also energy to give a better output.

But how can we end classroom hunger?

Classroom hunger will end when there is provision for a delicious mid day meal in every school. Every kid no matter in which age group he belong, eats well with his peers. They will compete with each other to finish their meal and will stop being the fussy eater that they usually are in the confines of their home. When they learn the happiness of eating the same food as everyone else in his class, there is a sense of equality as well among the kids.

In a school I know run by a charitable mission, they provide mid day meal and the meal is cooked by the parents who volunteer each day in the kitchen along with the school kitchen staff. This ensures cleanliness and efficiency in the system of the activity. This can be adopted by other schools as well.

There has been instances when government agencies in charge of providing mid day meal ate up the money provide for the mid day meal and then provided low quality food to the kids. There have been even deaths due to food poisoning during the lunch hour.

The Akshay Patra, just like the legendary vessel of the Pandavas, is doing commendable work to ensure an end to classroom hunger. It has succeeded to ensure that its feeding capacity doesn’t end. With the help of volunteers and kind hearted people, the Akshay Patra mission which began with a handful of schools , has become a strong presence in the struggle to end classroom hunger by feeding an estimated 1.3 million children across India.

Watch this video to learn about Akshay Patra.

This blog post is intended to help to feed a child for a full year. Blogadda, one of the largest online community for bloggers in India has taken up the initiative to donate an Akshay Patra beneficiary for each blog post that is written for the cause by the registered bloggers.

Fellow bloggers, do your bit and help feed a hungry child for an entire academic year.
Each blogger can write five posts. You have the capability to feed five kids for an entire year. Do take up this noble cause.

I am going to #BlogToFeedAChild with Akshaya Patra and BlogAdda.

How do we end Classroom Hunger?

Let us ensure them a nutritious meal (Image source: Akshay Patra)

The best hour in school is the lunch hour. No matter how old you are or how meager your tiffin is, you can’t wait for the lunch hour to arrive. I can still remember the hunger that raged, the curses we threw at our teachers who lingered to finish that extra portion that might come for exam. It was the golden hour for us all in school.

Now years has passed and while I pack the lunch for my son, I remember my school lunch hours. I feel bad that while I will eat hot food at home, my son would have to be content with the cold food that would be there in his tiffin.

But then, he is lucky to have that serving of food. There are millions of kids who live without having proper food elsewhere in the world, who would do anything to earn a plate of food. When government schools started to serve free food to all kids at school, the attendance increased, because many a kid began to get at least a square meal once in a day. There was no other scheme that was popular than this scheme.

The happiness that I get when I am able to feed my family with hot, homely food when their hunger is raging is the best benefit that I earned from having learned to cook.

The lunch box that I send for my son mostly come back un-eaten. Mostly because he is a slow eater and also because he likes hot food. If  the school provided, fresh and healthy food, many students like my son would not have to brave classroom hunger and wait until the final bell sets them free. The bell sound ends their hunger too. I have seen kids rushing to nearby cafeterias after school to calm their raging hunger.

I have seen kids belonging to the lower economic sections of the society rejoice the opportunity to have to go to school. Most of the government schools provide mid-day meal, an alluring prospect for many of these kids.

When hunger pangs disappear, knowledge starts to enter the brain. Hunger causes distraction and lack of spirits in children.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation headquartered in Bangalore, India. The organisation strives to fight issues like hunger and malnutrition in India. By implementing the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in the Government schools and Government aided schools, Akshaya Patra aims to fight not only hunger but also to bring children to school.

Akshaya Patra and Blogadda have teamed up for a worldwide blogging competition, to help end classroom hunger!

Participants must send in blogs of at least 300 words on the theme 'How do we eliminate classroom hunger? Imagine what India would be like if no child goes hungry and an entire generation is educated! 

For every blog entry Blogadda will feed one Akshaya Patra beneficiary for a whole year. The top five blog posts will be featured in an exclusive series on the Akshaya Patra official blog, and promoted via social media.

So fellow bloggers, let us join this campaign and help end classroom hunger.

• I am going to #BlogToFeedAChild with Akshaya Patra and BlogAdda.