Locally wild edibles are the best food supplement for children

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaSeptember 28, 2021

In order to supplement the nutritious requirement of the school going children, the Society for Urban & Rural Empowerment (SURE), Jowai in collaboration with North East Slow Food Agrobiodiversity Society (NESFAS), Shillong guided and support several schools under its project areas to start school garden.

The idea is to encourage the students and their teachers to grow vegetables in the school garden to supplement the food provided as midday meal. The other approach is to encourage the teachers and the midday meal cooks in the school to make the best use of the indigenous food available locally in the midday meal they prepare for their students.

There are many nutritious food available locally or perhaps in the vicinity of the schools that can be cooked to make the schools midday meal a balance diet.

SURE and NESFAS organised the programme call More Nutritious Midday Meals Campaigns in many villages under Amlarem Subdivision, West Jaintia Hills District. Teachers, students and midday meal cooks attended the workshop on September 22 held at Mupyut and Mustem cluster.

On September 27, the programme was organised at Khonglah Nongbareh cluster and another at Moosakhia Samanong cluster. Cluster schools from these villages partake in the workshop. The programme is part of “No one shall be left behind: initiative” project which is supported by REC and implemented in some villages in Meghalaya and Nagaland.

Daka Bareh, Field Coordinator SURE, highlighted about the 10 food group and its importance and also explained that the main purpose of conducting the campaign is to prioritize the types of local crops to be incorporated in the midday meal to improve the nutrition of children through increased consumption of diverse local foods.

She also said that locally wild edibles are the best food supplement for acquiring proper nutrition for children and also share the ideas on school garden. She also encouraged the schools that had established school garden to revive it again and also school that has not set up school garden to implement it as they can utilise the crops grown in the mid day meal of the students.

A pre test was done in the workshop, asking the participants whether they include 5 food group in their meals or not. Some participants share especially mothers that they don’t have time to prepare and some says due to poverty they cannot afford.

Cooking demonstration was conducted were the midday meal cook along with the teachers took part in it by using the local crops that were brought by the MDM cook keeping in mind the 5 food group to be included.