For students of the Chennai Girls Higher Secondary School in Nungambakkam, the menu for lunch has just got bigger, and better. From Wednesday, thirteen varieties of rice and four types of egg masala, in various permutations and combinations, are to brighten the meal at noon for these students.
The revamped nutritious noon-meal scheme was inaugurated in Chennai Schools here on Tuesday by Social Welfare and Nutritious Noon Meal Programme Minister B. Valarmathi and Mayor Saidai Duraisamy.
There will be one set of menu for the first and third weeks of a month and another set for the second and fourth week.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had announced the revamped scheme to break the monotony in the menu under the scheme introduced by former Chief Minister M.G. Ramchandran 30 years ago.
The food was prepared by workers trained by well-known chefs and nutrition experts.
A few months ago, such food was served on an experimental basis in a school in Saidapet. The new scheme is being introduced in one taluk in the district and would be extended to other areas gradually.
The students would be served vegetable biriyani and pepper egg on first and third Mondays; ‘channa-pulav’ and tomato egg masala on Tuesdays; tomato rice and pepper egg on Wednesdays; rice, sambar and boiled egg on Thursdays and curry leaf rice or keerai rice, egg masala and roasted potato on Fridays.
The menu of second and fourth Mondays would be sambar rice, onion and tomato egg masala; mealmaker and vegetable mixed rice and pepper egg on Tuesdays; tamarind rice and tomato egg masala on Wednesdays; lemon rice, tomato egg masala and sundal on Thursdays and rice, sambar, boiled egg and roasted potato on Fridays.
The government would also provide a variety of dishes to the children attached to anganwadis of the city.
The new menu is expected to increase the number of poor students attending school and improve nutrition.
