A tour of colleges in Chennai that have drawn up a noon meal programme and persisted with it for years

How free mid-day meals in chennai colleges helps improve attendance and boosts interest in studies. A look at noon-meal scheme in four colleges - Guru Nanak, Shasun Jain, CTTE Collge and DRBCCCC

This year, the community kitchen attached to the Gurudwara at Guru Nanak College in Velachery completes a decade of serving free meals to students.

Manjit Singh Nayar, general secretary and correspondent of the college, constructed the Langar Kitchen and introduced the langar (free meal scheme) for the students in 2014 using his own funds, says a note on the college website.

The langar kitchen was set up in memory of Pavit, Manjit’s son who died in an accident in 2010. The kitchen started by serving food every last Sunday to those living in the vicinity and the devotees visiting the gurudwara.

“Then we decided to extend it to students as we saw NCC and sports students left home early for practice. We started out by giving them breakfast. The numbers slowly increased and we started serving the lunch as well,” says Manjit.

In the last 10 years, the langar has evolved in many ways.

In the initial years, the departments heads were asked to identify students really in need of a good meal and tokens were given to such students. “Later, we discontinued that practice as we felt it was wrong to categorise such students, which is also the basic idea of langar — serving free food to anyone without any discrimination whatsoever,” says Manjit.

Anyone who comes to the dinning area with a plate is given a meal comprising variety rice with some side dish or white rice with sambar and pickle. As in a langar, all sit on the floor and enjoy the meal.