College students who traverse long distances to attend class, will be given free lunch ranging from rice sambar to mudde sambar, at the newly established Nrupatunga University.
The Nrupatunga University (formerly Government Science College) has identified 250 undergraduate and postgraduate students who will be given midday meals from Wednesday. Students will be given a coupon to avail the meal from 11:45 am during their common break. Interestingly, most of the funding for these meals comes from their lecturers.
Each teacher has pitched in anywhere between Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000, towards the initiative that will span three months or a semester. Should more funds coming in from benefactors, the number of students benefitting from the programme would increase as well.
This is not the first time that the institute has run such a programme. Every year, about 300-500 undergraduate and post-graduate students are identified for the meal programme depending on the funds available, Kavitha K.R., Registrar Administration, Nrupatunga University told TNIE.
The students are identified by lecturers who mentor a cohort of 20 to 25 students. Student beneficiaries are identified on the basis of distance of travel from their home to college, economically challenged backgrounds, and those who have early classes, added Kavitha.
However, the programme was halted with the onset of the pandemic in 2020, and now the initiative is back when the college has attained a university status.
"The possibility of providing breakfast was discussed earlier. Since students from science discipline have practical classes starting at 8am, there was a logistical problem catering to all students at once. Hence, meals at noon was decided on," she added.