New kitchen powers school breakfast scheme

Metro India News | Mancherial

A state-of-the-art Centralized Community Kitchen established by the Hare Krishna Movement Charitable Foundation India (HKMCF India) was inaugurated at the Mancherial Medical Godown on Monday to provide nutritious breakfasts to government schoolchildren under the Telangana School Breakfast Programme.

Mancherial MLA Kokkirala Premsagar Rao inaugurated the facility in the presence of Sri Satya Gaura Chandra Dasa Swamiji, President of HKMCF India and Regional President of The Akshaya Patra Foundation for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, along with government officials, public representatives and other dignitaries.

The kitchen will benefit around 49,109 students in 691 government schools and 13 junior colleges across 17 mandals in Mancherial, Jagityal and Peddapalli districts. Meals will be hygienically prepared at the facility and distributed to schools on time.

The project is a collaboration between the Telangana government, HKMCF India and Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) under its Corporate Social Responsibility initiative. The State government provided a 12,000-square-foot shed at the Medical Godown, while SCCL funded the construction and HKMCF India established and will operate the modern facility.

The high-tech kitchen is equipped with automated systems for large-scale food preparation. Its facilities include steamers capable of preparing 5,400 idlis an hour, an automatic dosa-making machine producing 2,000 dosas an hour and a puri-making machine with a capacity of 3,000 puris an hour.

Automated sambar and curry-making equipment can prepare food for 5,000 students within two hours, while high-capacity rice-cooking equipment can prepare rice for 1,000 students in 15 minutes.

The facility also focuses on sustainability by converting biodegradable waste generated during food preparation into biogas. It is equipped with a Reverse Osmosis water treatment plant, boiler plant, central gas bank and an Effluent Treatment Plant to ensure safe water use, efficient operations and responsible waste management.

HKMCF India said it had developed a diverse breakfast menu, endorsed by the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), in partnership with the Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR), to provide nutritious and enjoyable meals that vary each school day.

Premsagar Rao described August 31, 2026, as a historic day for Mancherial. He said the facility, built with Rs 7.5 crore in SCCL CSR funds, has the capacity to serve nearly 50,000 meals and is the fourth-largest kitchen of its kind in Telangana. He added that it could also serve surrounding districts.

Sri Satya Gaura Chandra Dasa said HKMCF India had been serving underprivileged people through several nutrition initiatives in partnership with government departments, including the Telangana School Breakfast Programme, Bhojanamrita, Indiramma Canteens, Saddimoota and Swasthya Ahara.

He thanked Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, MLA Premsagar Rao and SCCL for their support, saying the initiative reaffirmed the commitment to improving child nutrition and learning outcomes through collaborative efforts.