Information on the Local Production-Based Nutritious School Day Meal Model, 2081
The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology has issued the Local Production-Based Nutritious School Day Meal Model, 2081. The relevant details for local governments and schools regarding this model are provided below for their information and implementation.
1. Program Implementation Structure
Local governments are primarily responsible for implementing the local production-based nutritious school-day meal program. Supporting committees and structures can be coordinated with regional ministries and bodies. The committees specified in the Community School Day Meal Standards and Program Facilitation Manual, 2067, and the School Day Meal Management Support Manual, 2077, can be updated according to the details below to operate the program.
1.1 School Day Meal Advisory Committee
This committee will include representatives from the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology, the National Planning Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, the Ministry of Health and Population, the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, and development partners working in the field of nutrition.
1.2 Steering Committee
The steering committee for managing, implementing, coordinating, and monitoring the local production-based nutritious school day meal program will include representatives from the Education and Human Resource Development Center, the Curriculum Development Center, the Educational Quality Testing Center, nutrition experts from the Ministry of Health and Population, food experts from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, the World Food Programme, and related organizations.
1.3 Provincial-Level Committee
To effectively operate the local production-based nutritious school day meal program within the province and to facilitate its implementation and increase its effectiveness, a day meal program monitoring and facilitation committee can be formed as needed. This committee may include the Ministry of Social Development or the Ministry overseeing education, the Ministry overseeing the agricultural sector, the Ministry overseeing the health sector, the Education Development Directorate, the Education Training Center, and field offices of the World Food Programme located in provincial headquarters.
1.4 District Food Coordination and Monitoring Committee
A coordination and facilitation committee for the local production-based nutritious school day meal program can be formed at the district level, including the District Coordination Committee, the Education Development and Coordination Unit, the Agriculture Knowledge Center, and the District Public Health Office.
1.5 Local Level Committees
The local-level program implementation mechanism specified in the Community School Day Meal Standards and Program Facilitation Manual 2076 can be mobilized for coordinating, facilitating, monitoring, and reporting on the nutritious school day meal program. This mechanism can implement the program with the involvement of the ward-level Nutrition and Food Security Facilitation Committee and the nutrition focal person as arranged by the Multi-sectoral Nutrition Plan III (2081/2082-2087/2088). Other stakeholders can be invited to the local-level committees as needed.
1.6 School-Level Committees
The responsibility for managing and implementing the local production-based nutritious school day meal program according to the day meal standards and food group will be given to the school management committee to provide quality day meals to children.
2. Roles of Various Bodies
2.1 Local Governments
Local governments are primarily responsible for managing the local production-based nutritious school day meal program. Every local government must formulate policies to promote local production and ensure the day meals are based on local production and of high quality. This includes addressing aspects such as local production supply, export projection, and price determination of local products. Schools must determine the mandatory menu for the meals.
The local governments must decide whether to use a uniform menu throughout their area or vary it according to the context and local production. Coordination and collaboration with the private and non-governmental sectors are necessary.
The budget transferred by the federal government for the school day meal must be supplemented or mobilized as needed to implement plans related to this program.
Local governments maintain standards and levels according to national school standards under their jurisdiction and monitor and evaluate the program. They can collaborate with the provincial government to develop capacities and request additional resources.
2.2 Schools
The primary responsibility for providing nutritious day meals to children daily lies with the schools. Schools must formulate and implement an action plan for managing local production-based day meals for the entire academic session. Schools are responsible for implementing the day meal program with community participation according to the specified standards. Schools must involve mothers' groups, parents, local clubs, and other groups or committees in managing the day meals. The key sensitive issue for schools is the development of the meal menu and its effective implementation.
2.3 Community
Community participation is crucial in the local production-based school nutrition program. Parents, farmers' groups, mothers' groups, local clubs, and others play an essential role in the production, supply, procurement, storage, preparation, feeding of children, sustainable waste management, and overall program monitoring.
3. Promotion of Local Production
To enhance and make the existing school day meal program more effective nationwide, it is necessary to promote the production of locally produced food items through the coordination of education, agriculture, and other relevant ministries.
To increase the production of local food items, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development should provide subsidies to local farmers, assist and facilitate production, and work on their capacity development.
The roles of the three levels of government and the various ministries involved are equally important. The following actions should be prioritized to encourage local farmers and promote local production:
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Food and Nutrition Priority: Given that food and nutrition are basic needs for individuals and that social security programs in Nepal include pensions, disability allowances, elderly allowances, social security allowances for persons with disabilities, health insurance, and scholarships, nutrition should be prioritized.
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Promoting Local Food Production: Emphasis should be placed on the local production of all food groups needed for children, including pulses, grains, fruits, and vegetables rich in vitamins and zinc. Parents, the community, and local agricultural groups should be encouraged, and agricultural subsidies should be provided.
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Improving Access and Consumption: Efforts should be made to improve access to and consumption of agricultural and livestock-based food. This includes enhancing supply systems and assisting farmers in increasing agricultural production and consumption at the local level. Community seed banks should be established to distribute food items at subsidized prices.
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Empowering Women and Disadvantaged Groups: Programs should be conducted to raise awareness and develop the capacity of women and disadvantaged groups to increase the production and consumption of livestock-based food items.
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Supporting Cooperative Groups: Subsidies should be provided for entrepreneurial agricultural businesses, prioritizing women's groups.
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Promoting Organic Farming: Priority should be given to organic farming systems.
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Special Strategies and Policies: Special strategies and conservation policies should be developed, and agreements should be made to promote local production.
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Simplifying Public Procurement Processes: The public procurement process is complex, and the tender process is even more complicated and time-consuming. The legal procedures involved are impractical and challenging for small farmers, so a written agreement between schools and farmers or local suppliers is necessary to simplify and facilitate these processes. Small farmers may find it difficult to wait long for payments, so immediate payment arrangements should be made considering their production and supply capabilities.
4. Food Production in Schools
To promote the local production-based nutritious school day meal program, schools with available land should collaborate with local governments and local agricultural groups to produce food items used in day meals based on the potential of location-specific production. Schools that offer courses in crop science should use the food items they create in their day meals. When planting trees within the school premises, priority should be given to fruit and vegetable plants suitable for the local climate and location. According to local circumstances, project work and "learning by earning" activities related to teaching and learning should also be integrated into this program.
5. Infrastructure, Storage, and Day Meal Preparation
To provide nutritional supplementation to children by using locally produced food items in day meals, the necessary standards must be met for facilities, including kitchens, storage, cooking and serving utensils, water supply, smoke-free stoves, and other essential materials.
These standards are outlined in the "Community School Day Meal Standards and Program Facilitation Manual, 2077." In schools with fewer students, the shortage of teachers means that existing teachers may have to cook and serve meals, which can affect their teaching duties. Therefore, local governments and schools need to take special precautions in this matter.
6. Food Safety and Hygiene in Schools
The detailed standards and guidelines for day meal preparation and related subjects in schools are provided in the "School Day Meal Management Support Manual, 2077." These standards should also be adopted for local production-based day meals. To maintain food safety and hygiene in the nutritious school day meal program, kitchen utensils, meal preparation materials, food baskets, menus, kitchen cleanliness, and meal preparation and distribution management aspects must adhere to the food safety and hygiene standards set by the "School Day Meal Management Support Manual, 2077." The relevant menu prescribed by this manual can be used in schools.
In managing day meals according to the specified standards, each meal should consist of 50-60 grams of grains, 40-50 grams of legumes, 30-50 grams of fruits and green vegetables, and 20-30 grams of animal products, totaling 150-200 grams per meal. The average quantity per student should be 175 grams.
Under food safety and hygiene measures, processed foods should be prohibited, and plastic meal utensils should be banned. To ensure food safety and hygiene in school-day meals, the standards and hygiene of farmer-produced items can be ensured by blending and testing them in private and government food laboratories.
7. Safe Storage and Kitchen Facilities for Day Meals
Various models of safe storage and kitchen facilities for day meals can be arranged based on geographical context, student numbers, and suitability and utility. Schools with many students and geographically suitable locations can set up integrated large-scale kitchens to provide daily meals to schools, offering locally-flavored meals and food. Parents, mothers' groups, local clubs, school-appointed cooks, or third-party caterers hired by schools or local governments can prepare and distribute meals in schools with fewer students and remote locations. Modern innovative technologies can be used for meal preparation in the mentioned models. It is essential for hot school day meals to be provided to young children. If integrated meal management is needed, it should be done only after extensive discussions among local stakeholders.
8. Climate Change and Adaptation
The day meal program is viewed as a means to enhance educational, health, economic, and agricultural sectors and as a public good that includes cultural and ecological elements. The local production-based nutritious school day meal program plays an essential role in reducing the impacts of climate change. Using organic fertilizers instead of chemical fertilizers in local production and producing food items locally for daily meals eliminates the need for long-distance transportation, thus reducing carbon emissions. Consequently, the carbon footprint of such food items is also lower.
Improved stoves, biogas, or induction stoves used in schools reduce environmental pollution. Prohibiting plastic utensils when feeding children helps mitigate the adverse health impacts. Indigenous agricultural production must increase to include locally produced food items in school meals. Enhancing indigenous agricultural production reduces the decline in agricultural and livestock production due to climate change, increases production, and conserves biodiversity.
Promoting resilient agricultural practices helps mitigate the effects of climate change. To achieve this, it is necessary to increase the production of indigenous crops that are more resistant to pests and diseases, contain relatively higher nutritional values, and have long-term reproductive capacity (Ministry of Agricultural Development and Ministry of Health and Population, 2073).
Seed conservation is required to transfer the qualities and characteristics of indigenous seeds to new seeds and develop new crops. To promote Indigenous crops, programs must be conducted to develop the capacity of school management committees, parents, and local farmers
9. Cleanliness and Waste Management
Cleanliness and purity are essential aspects of meal preparation, which requires proper management of kitchen waste and the areas where children eat. Nutritious meals cannot be prepared until the person preparing them is fully aware of cleanliness and purity. Therefore, proper management of kitchen waste before and after meal preparation is considered the most essential aspect.
Required Actions:
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Clean Storage Areas Regularly: To manage waste from the local production-based nutritious school day meal program, storage rooms should be cleaned regularly and kept free of unnecessary items.
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Maintain Clean Cooking Areas: Ensure that wooden planks are placed on the floor of storage and cooking rooms, keep food away from walls, and maintain a clean environment by regularly cleaning corners and using insecticides. Take preventive measures to avoid potential issues.
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Provide Clean Drinking Water: There should be a provision for clean and pure drinking water.
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Ensure Food Safety: Proper waste management is essential to prevent food contamination.
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Separate Organic and Non-Organic Waste: Coordinate with local farmers and community groups to establish designated organic and non-organic waste areas. Schools with gardens or arable land should convert organic waste into compost and dispose of non-organic waste appropriately. If the school lacks such facilities, manage waste according to the Waste Management Act of 2068.
