“For now I ask no more than the justice of eating”

The primary purpose of each human being striving to be employed, achieve, earn and saving is to survive without hunger throughout the life. Each time I hold a spicy, crispy, tasty burger and chew it under the air conditioned restaurant, i forget all the tension for a moment and relax myself. It’s not only in burger, any food i love to eat gives a lot of relaxation. How about a moment we are stuck with huge targets and running behind the complexities of career achievement during lunch time? Do you ever felt that you haven’t done justice to yourself?

 For many, the hunger enters into their life as an uninvited guest who screw them top to bottom and not letting them to have even a free of thought. A silent tragedy continues to play out in many homes and streets in our country about 200 million go to bed with empty stomach. In Anagalpura village also, the situation is same. The parents fight hard to the strong, thick stones, breaking them into pieces and carrying them on their shoulders. They know the real value of each coin that they get after working in the heavy sun. The sun loots their energy, hopes and enthusiasm and push them down to earth at the end of each day. At the dawn, they still awake before the sun enters into their eyes and start to fight with stones again. The ultimate reason is to see the smile on their kids face and embrace them with a plate of meal every day.

The Feed The Children program began in the year 2004 by Lovedale Foundation to abolish the cycle of poverty in Anagalpura. The program was piloted in Banyan Community School where free education is guaranteed to the children from marginalized, abandoned, under privileged and destitute in Anagalpura village. FTC program had a positive impact in selective cases (e.g., enhancing enrolment, attendance and lowering drop out of students) which are essential for achieving the higher level of academic performance of students particularly belongs to BPL level students residing in the rural areas in the state of Karnataka. The program allows the students to fill their tiny stomachs with tasty food and snacks without fail. The school provides three times meal in a day including nutrition drink, lunch and snacks to abolish the cycle of poverty and encourage them to avail the free education.

At the beginning of every week, the retention was very high due to the empty stomach at weekends and it forces them to reach school at the earliest. Furthermore, FTC program has some other benefits like removal of classroom hunger, social and gender equality and formation of good habits of students (like washing their own hands and utensils before meal ) other than academic achievement in school. But in order to get satisfactory outcomes, FTC program should be incorporated with the ongoing health awareness programs across our project centers. We indeed require adequate support from    individuals and corporates for the sustainability of this program to expand it to other states in the country. For further details please get connected with us through info@lovedalefoundation.org