SFP 47 – Puwakpitiya College, Habarana
This school was taken on by Achala. She committed to sponsoring it for a whole year. “Give me one,” she said. “I’m going abroad this month anyway, so I want to take on a project before I leave.”
Getting information about the school was challenging due to poor signal, but the school had done an even better job than we could have imagined.
On the very first day, they had already built a kitchen and a dining area to serve the meals.
This is a school run by a principal who, unlike others who complain about a lack of buildings, built one in a single day to feed her students. Even though there’s plenty of land, there are not always enough buildings. To find out how they served such a wholesome plate of food for just 60 rupees, you’ll have to meet the principal yourself.
We give them the same amount of money the government provides per child, but with two small differences:
1. We trust the mothers. We give them the money in advance so they can buy supplies without being indebted to shops for two months. When you take things on credit, it’s impossible to stop the food from becoming just rice and watered-down curry, even if you pay a thousand rupees per meal.
2. We create five groups of mothers for the five days of the week and ask them to cook. After all, it’s their own children who are in the school. The only rule is to cook whatever they want, as long as the children get a full meal.
I saw the concept of a school dining area in Japan. The school kitchen and dining area are separate from the classrooms. Once the mothers finish cooking, the children come from their classrooms, take their food, and go back to eat. This is coordinated by food monitors. The children themselves serve the food.
I hope the benefactors who read this will introduce this concept to their own schools. If they can make it happen, that will be the SFP-ProMax level of the Japanese food program. If you’re ready to build one, please get in touch. I’ll provide the technical support.
Thank you, Achala Wannigama
