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The purpose of this paper is to explore and further explain the phenomena of supplier participation in addressing the sustainability-oriented objectives of a supply chain. Specifically, the paper explains how a buyer can integrate sustainability concerns among its suppliers. The study is based in the context of the Indian school feeding (mid-day meal) program and approaches the issue from the perspective of a mid-day meal provider.

This paper first explains how the mid-day meal providers in India explicitly address the social and economic dimensions of sustainability. Thereby, it conducts an exploratory case study on a renowned meal provider with the objective to understand the nature of its efforts toward supplier participation through in-depth interviews.

As evident in the case, from the buyer’s perspective, the key to success in winning supplier participation in addressing the sustainability-oriented supply chain objectives largely revolves around efforts along the critical aspects of policy development, policy implementation, and intent building with suppliers.

This paper propagates a threefold value by outlining the central importance of the focus on efforts and challenges for understanding supplier participation in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). First, the paper is among the initial studies to focus on ground-level efforts and challenges for a mid-day meal provider, and outlines best practices. Second, the case presents revelatory insights on SSCM from the perspective of supplier participation. For example, it demonstrates the relevance of supply-chain-based social identification in governing supplier willingness to participate in a buyer’s SSCM. Third, the findings also extend critical implications toward SSCM theory and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the difference in students’ preferences on weekly menu of school mid-day meal (MDM) program in Uttar Pradesh, India.

The study is based on primary structured questionnaire survey through personal interviews using multi-stage stratified sampling technique. This comprehensive survey covered 2,400 primary and upper primary students belonging to eight districts of Uttar Pradesh – Allahabad, Balrampur, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Hathras, Kanpur Nagar, Mathura, Shahjahanpur and Varanasi. A total of 60 schools have been selected from each district, covering a total of 480 primary and upper primary schools. Simple statistical tools have been used to analyze the surveyed data such as cross-tabulation, percentage distribution and rank analysis. Further, six research hypotheses have been formulated to analyze the difference in school meal menu preferences among the students and χ2-statistics has been used to test the significance level of these hypotheses.

Survey results indicate that more than 90 percent students eat MDM in the school as per the weekly menu. Result of χ2-test indicates that choices on school meal menu among the students differ significantly across weekdays. Rice-pulses or rice-sambar served on Tuesday is reported to be the first preferred food of children given first preference by around 30 percent, followed by kadi-rice or kheer which is served on Wednesday. The results of χ2-tests exhibited a significant difference on weekly menu choices by gender, kitchen types, rural and urban locations and geographical regions. About 27 percent of the students reported that they want to have a change in the menu. When further probed about the kind of changes desired in the menu, puri-vegetables was found to be the most preferred choice of the respondents, beside halwa/kheer and rice with pulses/vegetables/kadi being the next preferred choices.

The present study provides managerial implications to the policy makers and scheme/program implementers for better understanding of the students’ preferences on school MDM weekly menu.

There are several evaluation studies undertaken by various agencies to assess the impact of MDM program on school attendance, retention and nutritional status of children. However, there are limited numbers of studies available, which have measured the students’ preferences on school MDM menu.

Reports on studies, which were carried out in two urban schools in the UK, of the nutritional composition of mid‐day meals taken by primary schoolchildren. Describes how the nutritional analyses indicated that all of the meals provided an excess of the energy from components such as fat and sugar, whereas some of the meal choices provided a less than adequate supply of minerals and vitamins such as iron, calcium and folate. The meals included hot meat and non‐meat dishes and sandwiches. Makes comparisons with standards provided by the Caroline Walker Trust.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the differences in pupils’ satisfaction on various aspects of mid-day meal (MDM) program in India across food catered by centralized and decentralized kitchens.

The study is based on structured questionnaire survey through personal interviews of 1,200 school children of primary and upper primary schools of four districts of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Simple statistical tools such as descriptive statistics, factor analysis, t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) have been used for meaningful data analysis.

Pupils’ responses on 17 attributes of their satisfaction on school meal program were reduced to four components − quality of food, social bonding, health and hygiene and availability of support infrastructure, using factor analysis technique. Findings show the perceived differences in satisfaction on various aspects of MDM program. Further, ANOVA indicate that there is significant difference in the satisfaction level on MDM supplied through centralized and decentralized kitchens.

This study provides an understanding of pupils’ perceptions of school meal program in order to enable policy makers, school administration and caterers of MDM to design better food service delivery models.

Findings of the study clearly indicate that benefit of social bonding is an added advantage to continue the school meal program irrespective of the fact whether food is served through centralized or decentralized kitchens.

There are several evaluation studies undertaken by various agencies to assess the impact of MDM program in India. However, there are only limited numbers of studies available, which have analyzed the children’s satisfaction on school MDM program across kitchen types.

Faced with a rapid fall in the number of children buying the mid‐day school meal, Suffolk County Council are to adopt a commercial approach to the service. They have appointeed a London public relations company, Infoplan Ltd, to ‘market’ the school meal programme in Suffolk, in an attempt to halt the drop in numbers and build new interest and new customers for the school meal.

The case will help students to understand the challenges faced by the organisations with respect to implementing social reforms; develop an understanding in creating sustainable solutions to the social problems; identify leadership challenges faced by such enterprises; and understand grassroots challenges of establishing such enterprises in India.

The case deals with the dilemma and challenges of Col. Nirban Singh, in-charge of Midday meal of QRG Foundation at Alwar. The foundation was based on the vision of creating a positive impact in communities through social service. They follow a socially positive agenda and work consistently to contribute to the betterment of the society and its future. Their initiatives revolve around their concerns for the nutrition, health and education of children. It was decided that out of the three programmes on environment, sanitation and the mid-day meal (MDM) for school going children, the later will be the flagship CSR activity of Havells. The programme began with coverage of 1,500 students in 2005. In 2015, ten years since inception, the Havells MDM scheme catered to over 58,000 students from 688 schools every day in the Alwar region of Rajasthan. Till February 2017, Havells has served over 66 million meals to students and impacted lives of millions of Children (Source: Havells). The case illustrates innovative model of automation in food preparation and cooking operations adopted by the company with minimum human intervention, to maintain hygiene and thereby with the help of special vans owned by the company quickly distribute freshly cooked food to schools at lunch time. The case highlights the purpose behind this initiative, challenges that company face in day-to-day activities and the impact of this initiative on the children in Alwar district at Rajasthan. QRG is at the crossroad: Col. Nirban must identify the way forward without compromising on the quality of the services provided. His available options are replicate the programme in the new state, upscale their services in Rajasthan and focus on the existing project and work on the ways to make it sustainable.

The case can be used in both undergraduate and graduate levels in entrepreneurship, management and leadership classes to discuss corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, NGO and responsible business. The case provides practical challenges faced by the social enterprises/NGOs in running the programme, implementing the policies on the ground, replicating and sustaining it. The case can be used in strategy, innovation and ethic classes.

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Management science.

This case is intended for use in a course on supply chain management.

The study is applicable to MBA or executive MBA programme.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation (TAPF) is an Indian non-governmental organisation which provides free mid-day meals to students in government schools. This case revolves around one of its kitchen facility (TAPF Bhilai) located in Bhilai in the Chhattisgarh province of India. TAPF Bhilai is about to witness a significant increase in the number of students to cater for. The Unit President, Vyomapada Das, is determined to ensure that there is no compromise in the standards of service in terms of quality and hygiene of meals in the wake of present expansions. As such, he recognizes that addressing a social cause brings additional responsibilities to them towards ensuring superior quality meals. He thereby lays a special emphasis upon the role of purchasing and supply in facilitating the scale expansion.

This case intends to demonstrate the process of managing, purchasing and supply for a socially responsible supply chain. Students must be able to appreciate the challenges associated with such a system. By applying the key theoretical concept of the social capital theory, they must also understand the nature of managerial responses inherent in these challenges.

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CSS 9: Operations and Logistics.

“Million fewer buy school meals”, “School meals fall angers M.P.s”, “School meals shock for Minister” — these are some of the headlines in the national press in recent months as a result of the increase in price of school meals from 1st April, 1971. Some claim that the lower numbers taking meals are partially seasonal but one must accept the fact that there has been a significant reduction varying in extent over the country. In my own authority from April to June, 1971 there was a decrease of 17 per cent in paid meals with a slight increase in free meals issued. Adjacent authorities quote a decrease of over 30 per cent.

A nutritional analysis of the weekly menus from 24 residential homes was conducted and information gathered by questionnaire on the planning, preparation and service of meals. The nutritional standard of the menus complied with many of the nutritional guidelines in the Caroline Walker Trust (CWT) Report (1995). Meals, if eaten, would provide sufficient energy and nutrients to meet most of the dietary needs of the elderly residents. However, the menus provided an inadequate amount of starch, fibre and Vitamin D and a higher than recommended level of sugar and salt. Menus complied with the recommendations in the CWT Report, with familiar traditional home cooked dishes, a variety of vegetables, different main course items and a selection of puddings. Adequate drinks and snacks were provided between formal meals. However, for many residents there was no choice at meals, meals were pre‐plated and there was a lack of variety with weekly repeated meals.

Combines a marketing study of the Meals on Wheels (MoW) service in Leicester, with a study of food consumption patterns in 1,500 elderly persons by the use of a self‐completed questionnaire, which aimed to evaluate the consumer characteristics, service provision and degree of satisfaction of MoW recipients and identify specific areas of dissatisfaction. Overall 88 per cent said they were very satisfied or satisfied with the service. Food consumption patterns showed that the majority of the elderly ate other food besides MoW but 26 per cent of recipients provided no information, suggesting that little other food was eaten. Further research is required on preference ratings for various types of meals and on the attitudes of the elderly to certain food types, e.g. fruit, vegetables, milk and other dairy products.