Apna Bakery – Aga Khan Rural Support Program. The mission of this project is to design Energy bars with locally sourced ingredients that can go with school meals for nutritional fortification for 40,000 children in Dang district. This project will be a tremendous boost for a local women run bakery and generate regular demand for work. Usage of locally sources ingredients especially the finger millet Nagli will give great impetus to farmers who have started shifting to paddy farming. The bars will be designed by Centre for Food Research and Technology, Mysuru. The pilot will start with 700 children in 2 villages and once the proof of concept has been achieved, this has the potential to kickstart 2 more bakeries and employ many more women under it.
Apna Bakery – Aga Khan Rural Support Program. The mission of this project is to design Energy bars with locally sourced ingredients that can go with school meals for nutritional fortification for 40,000 children in Dang district. This project will be a tremendous boost for a local women run bakery and generate regular demand for work. Usage of locally sources ingredients especially the finger millet Nagli will give great impetus to farmers who have started shifting to paddy farming. The bars will be designed by Centre for Food Research and Technology, Mysuru. The pilot will start with 700 children in 2 villages and once the proof of concept has been achieved, this has the potential to kickstart 2 more bakeries and employ many more women under it.
The partners worked closely with beneficiaries, the women SHG running Apna bakery who all happened to be concerned mothers to understand the multi-pronged problem in the region. Mid-may meal programs run in schools though promised a free meal were nutritionally lacking and completely devoid of locally grown nutritious Nagli, Varai and other ingredients. On the other hand, the bakery was finding it hard to sustain operations with only local orders. Understanding the aspirations of women, the partners helped design Project Ragi Superfast. Many experts have been brought in to flesh out details like recipe development, packaging, logistics etc.