By Anam Palla and Shahnaz Hunzai | Project Managers
Zindagi Trust’s Breakfast Program, which aims to provide students with a nutritious locally sourced meal to start the day, is continuing with fervor at our two adopted government schools. The program seeks to integrate and build awareness of health, nutrition and environment among our young students.
At Khatoon e Pakistan Government Girls School (KPS), breakfast is served to students of kindergarten, first grade and second grade totaling 217 students. However, due to its larger student body, SMB Fatima Jinnah Government Girls School (SMB) is currently only able to serve breakfast to their 278 kindergarten students.
In keeping with the resolve to remove all processed items from the menu, this quarter KPS choose to replace store-bought bread with roti madein-house. On the other hand, with the onset of the Flu season, SMB introduced chicken soup to the menu. The regular menu at both schools comprises boiled eggs, omelet with chapatti, bread, jam, butter, pancakes, stewed or fried ladyfinger with chapatti and yogurt, boiled potatoes, chickpeas, biscuits, sandwiches, fruit salad, french toast, kidney beans, potato cutlets, mixed vegetables, wheat porridge and of course a glass of milk.
In our previous reports we have kept you updated about the school vegetable garden where the student’s Environmental Club is enthusiastically learning how to grow certain vegetables, protect them from pests and understand and appreciate food production. Two of the vegetables they have been growing were served for breakfast this quarter: spinach and bottle gourd. New vegetable seeds were planted for onions, peas, lady fingers and carrots. These will be ready to serve students in the next quarter. Furthermore, the environmental club is also taking care of composting kitchen waste.
The Breakfast program is has been tremendously successful. It has brought about a heartening improvement in the development and health of our young students. Teachers and staff report a decrease in absenteeism, fainting due to malnutrition, yawning during the class, and diminished concentration in studies and sports. Moreover, it has significantly boosted student admissions in the Early Childhood Development grades (ECD) at SMB. During Parent Teacher Meetings, parents are regularly advised to provide healthy homemade food to kids and not junk food. With the increasing awareness about health and hygiene especially through the breakfast program, the parents of our students show increased interest in what their children are eating and work to prepare similar items at home for them as well.
Please consider making a donation to our breakfast program to continue supporting nutritious meals for children in Pakistan’s public schools!
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