At K Khel Government Middle School in Viswema, Nagaland, lunch starts in the school garden. Its 60-odd students grow vegetables that eventually make their way from the soil to their own plates.

The children help clear the land, plant seeds, water beds, remove weeds and make organic manure. For more than a decade, the garden has been part of their education, and, eventually, part of their lunch.

At a time when school meals are making headlines for the wrong reasons, the example raises a larger question: what should a nutritious school lunch look like, and how do we ensure every child receives one? 

A garden beside the classroom

Recent videos have put that question back in focus. 

In Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur district, a viral video purportedly showed children being served thin potato curry, with burnt rotis. Following the virality of the videos on social media, the headmistress was suspended, the cook dismissed and an FIR registered. Action was also initiated against a senior education official over supervisory lapses.

Last year, another video from a government school in Odisha showed children being served boiled rice, watery curry and a boiled egg under the mid-day meal scheme.

Such incidents underline the need for stronger monitoring of a programme designed to ensure that children do not have to learn on an empty stomach.

In Viswema, a village of around 7,500 people in Nagaland’s Kohima district, one government school has spent years connecting that meal to the land around it.

The village is known for........

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