School Stops Serving Eggs during Midday Meals after Students Fall Sick
Mangaluru: A higher primary school in Nalyapadavu, in Shaktinagar, Mangaluru has stopped serving eggs during the midday meals, after objections from parents that their children fell ill after consuming them. The DKZP Higher Primary School, Nallyapadavu, which has 495 students, stopped serving eggs two months ago. Parents complained that their wards fell ill (stomach pain, bloating, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhoea) after consuming eggs, and therefore the school SDMC after a meeting with all parents, decided to stop serving eggs. Only chikki and bananas are served.
Kishore J, SDMC president speaking to the media said that stopping eggs during midday meals was a collective decision of parents. “They complained that their children fell ill after consuming eggs, and we have even noticed it. Sometimes rotten eggs were boiled and few students could not tolerate the smell of peeled-boiled eggs. The majority of students fell ill, and some complained of food poisoning. We asked the midday meal workers to stop the purchase and serving of eggs. Instead, we serve either chikki or bananas. We are ready to resume serving eggs if parents come forward and demand the same,” said Kishore.
Meanwhile, teachers at the school said that it was the decision of the SDMC and parents to stop serving eggs. They had complained that children consume eggs along with the midday meal sambar, which has toor dal in it. As a result, they suffer from gastritis. “We had also suggested that the midday meal supplied by Iskcon add asafoetida. The same was informed to the social audit team, which visits every school. They also collected information from parents after visiting several houses about issues with serving eggs. We are ready to resume serving eggs if SDMC and parents agree,” said teachers, adding that they used to boil 350 eggs.
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Prisca Rodrigues, whose daughter studies in class VIII, commented that the issue is genuine. “My daughter had fallen ill many times and lost weight after consuming a midday meal along with eggs. Therefore, I asked to stop consuming it.”
