Food & Nutrition | Food For Education | Mid Day Meal India | NGO | CSR

The ‘Food for Education project is an initiative to tackle hunger amongst the poorest children through school feeding programs and a community kitchen model. The project aims to transform lives with the foundation to provide access to the most basic need of food for children in need to help them choose and realize a better future. One core challenge we have taken up in mission mode at Responsenet is the need to fight hunger, especially for vulnerable children for whom we connect fresh meals. We serve those who need these meals the most every day to help them realize their potential and focus on child protection. This has the highest potential to impact children’s lives and help them stay healthy, learn and stay in school to realize their potential.

We partner with government, companies, individuals, and NGO partners in providing end-to-end implementation of feeding projects on daily basis. The approach and processes we follow include need assessment, partnerships development, food procurement & logistics, warehousing, distribution, preparation of fresh meals in localized kitchens, feeding, monitoring & evaluation, and documentation to reporting is what makes the functioning and operation of the project successful.

The key differentiator of the ‘Food for Education project is that we provide food assistance to those children who do not get access to the Mid Day Meal scheme under the National Programme of Nutritional Support for Primary Education.

The second key differentiator is that the project focuses more on the quality than the quantity of food served. The project has shown a positive association with increases in enrolments and attendance, and improvement in health which also means lesser visits to the doctor and more energy to play. enhancement of Neurological Development, children are getting mainstreamed on an annual basis, families are able to optimize their earnings and invest their savings for indirect benefits of the children, and most importantly have significantly shown an increase in the Happiness Quotient of Child which is the most crucial of all.

The qualitative impact created: 1) Better attendance through free meal programs (seen as an incentive by the students and their families. 2) Improved Behaviour: as fewer disciplinary actions were seen against the students studying in a particular school 3) School feeding initiatives play a key role in helping children realize their potential, both for themselves and their communities. Investing in the human capital development of children is among the most effective and productive investments 4) Empowering girls: School health and nutrition, including school meals, provide an incentive for families to send girls back to school, help girls stay in school, especially into adolescence, effectively preventing early marriage and delaying first pregnancy, both of which can trap women into poverty and social exclusion. 5) Improved Concentration: owing to more energy and attention span. 6) Better Academic Performance: fewer children were facing failure in the curriculum.

With the mission to work on the fundamental need for food for children, the project has helped build a better future by ensuring children stay in schools, learn, play, stay healthy and safe, and continue to fight against Hunger across India

The project works with the support of companies & implementation partners to replicate the model and help significantly evolve into a network of organically operated feeding centers catering to the health, education, and safety of children to help them realize their potential for a better future with the foundation of creating access to food. Responsenet has worked with many companies and has provided impactful Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) implementation, consulting, and planning across industry sectors for PSUs and Private Sector across India. With over 4000 network partners, a strong grass-roots network and implementation experience of over 15 years Responsenet has impacted millions through its integrated development approach.