School-going children require adequate nutrition for proper physical growth, mental development, immunity, and academic performance. Many children, especially those from economically weaker sections, come to school without a nutritious breakfast or with inadequate food. Hunger affects concentration, learning ability, classroom participation, and overall health. A nutritious mid-day meal programme is therefore an important intervention to improve the nutritional status of children while encouraging regular school attendance. If St. Marry's School has decided to supply nutritious mid-day meals, the programme should be carefully planned to meet the nutritional needs of children, ensure food safety, and promote healthy eating habits. The primary objective of a nutritious mid-day meal programme is to provide children with balanced and wholesome food that supplies a significant proportion of their daily nutritional requirements. The meal should provide approximately one-third of the daily energy requirement and about half of the daily protein requirement of school-age children. It should also contain essential vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre, and healthy fats to support normal growth and development. The programme should aim to improve the nutritional status of children by preventing protein-energy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies such as iron deficiency anaemia, vitamin A deficiency, iodine deficiency disorders, and calcium deficiency. Nutritious meals help improve immunity, reduce illness, enhance physical fitness, and support healthy body weight. Another important objective is to increase school enrolment, attendance, and retention. Children from low-income families are often motivated to attend school regularly when nutritious meals are provided. Mid-day meals also reduce absenteeism and dropout rates, particularly among girls and disadvantaged groups. They contribute to educational equity by ensuring that all children receive at least one wholesome meal during the school day. The programme also encourages social equality by promoting collective eating without discrimination based on caste, religion, gender, or socioeconomic status. Children eat together, share meals, and develop values of cooperation, respect, and inclusion. This creates a positive school environment and strengthens social harmony. Proper planning is essential for the successful implementation of the programme. The school should assess the number of children, their age groups, nutritional requirements, food preferences, cultural practices, and available resources before designing the menu. Meals should be acceptable, affordable, nutritious, hygienic, and easy to prepare in large quantities. The menu should follow the principles of a balanced diet. It should include cereals or millets as the major source of carbohydrates, pulses or legumes as protein sources, milk or milk products whenever possible, vegetables, green leafy vegetables, seasonal fruits, and limited quantities of fats and oils. The use of locally available foods should be encouraged because they are economical, fresh, culturally acceptable, and environmentally sustainable. Cereals such as rice, wheat, maize, and millets provide carbohydrates that supply energy for daily activities and learning. Millets like finger millet, pearl millet, and sorghum are rich in fibre, calcium, iron, and other micronutrients. Incorporating millets into the menu increases dietary diversity and improves nutritional quality. Pulses such as lentils, chickpeas, green gram, black gram, kidney beans, soybeans, and peas provide high-quality plant protein. Combining cereals with pulses improves protein quality because they complement each other's amino acid profile. Examples include rice with dal, khichdi, idli with sambar, chapati with rajma, and vegetable pulao with curd. Green leafy vegetables such as spinach, fenugreek, amaranth, mustard leaves, and drumstick leaves are excellent sources of iron, calcium, folic acid, beta-carotene, and dietary fibre. Seasonal vegetables including carrots, pumpkin, cabbage, beans, cauliflower, bottle gourd, ridge gourd, tomatoes, and beetroot provide vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that strengthen immunity and support healthy growth. Seasonal fruits should be included whenever possible. Bananas, guavas, oranges, papayas, mangoes, apples, and melons supply vitamin C, vitamin A, potassium, and dietary fibre. Fruits improve digestion and help prevent micronutrient deficiencies. Local seasonal fruits are generally more affordable and readily available. Milk and milk products such as milk, curd, paneer, and buttermilk are valuable sources of calcium, protein, riboflavin, and vitamin B12. If daily provision is not feasible due to financial constraints, they may be included several times a week. Fortified milk can further improve nutrient intake. Eggs are excellent sources of high-quality protein, vitamin D, vitamin B12, iron, choline, and healthy fats. Schools serving non-vegetarian meals may provide boiled eggs several times a week. In areas where