KLA Tencor Software India Private Limited along with NAF planned a series of Awareness programs on Health, Hygiene and Food Safety for school students

New Delhi: KLA Tencor Software India Private Limited, a MNC is collaborating with National Agro Foundation (NAF), a NGO working for Food and Agriculture Development in India; for creating a healthier future for school children as part of its CSR initiatives. Accordingly, NAF has planned a series of Awareness programs on Health, Hygiene and Food Safety for school students. NAF intends to reach out to students belonging to the age group of 11 – 16 years from Private, Government and Government aided schools in Chennai. The aim is to motivate the younger generation towards developing good hygiene practices and healthy eating habits and thereby becoming a smart consumer.
The technical sessions were handled by the subject matter experts and focused on the following:
 Importance of food safety and the practices to be followed to ensure consumption of safe food.
 The importance of reading a food label before buying any packed food
 Health and Nutrition – Choosing the right foods for a healthier future by adopting the principles of FAO – My plate concept.
 Importance of cleanliness and personal hygiene.
The students are also engaged in do-it and learn – it experiments on detecting food adulterants. Experiments on detecting adulterants in common foods like tea, honey, milk, dhal etc. were demonstrated which could be tried by the students in their home.
To instil the habit of regular hand washing and signify the importance of personal hygiene Hand swabs from students were collected the previous day to the event from the respective schools. These were developed in the laboratory to check their personal hygiene levels and the same was explained to the students in a scientific manner.
The project commenced in the month of July 2017. As on date, five schools covering 432 students have been benefited in this program. These include Ellen Sharma Memorial Matriculation Higher secondary school – Sholinganallur, Besant Arundale Senior Secondary School -Thiruvanmiyur, Hussain Memorial Matriculation Higher Secondary School -Ambattur, Geetha Matriculation Higher Secondary School- Saidapet and Kumararani Meena Muthiah Matriculation Higher Secondary School – Adyar.
The participants were also provided with hand-outs on hand washing, tips on choosing the right street food vendor and inputs on how to read a food label. Posters on these topics and reducing the use of plastics were given to the school.
The students felt that the program was very useful and informative as they gained more knowledge on importance behind food safety, health and hygiene. They also said they will share these useful information with their family.