What Tithi Bhojan Is
Tithi Bhojan is a community participation idea in which members of the local community voluntarily provide a special meal or additional dishes to schoolchildren to mark an occasion — a birthday, an anniversary, a festival or a remembrance. It supplements the regular Mid Day Meal rather than replacing it, adding variety and a sense of celebration to the children's day.
How It Works
A family or group that wishes to contribute coordinates with the school, usually through the School Management Committee, to provide an additional item such as sweets, fruit, or a richer dish on a chosen day. The regular meal is still cooked and served as normal; the community contribution is over and above the prescribed menu, so no child misses the standard entitlement.
Why Community Participation Helps
Inviting the community into the meal does more than add food. It builds local ownership of the scheme, brings extra eyes onto the quality and hygiene of the kitchen, and strengthens the bond between the school and the families it serves. When parents and neighbours see and share the meal, accountability naturally improves.
The Self-Help Group Connection
In Odisha, community involvement runs deeper through the widespread role of women's self-help groups in cooking and managing the meal. This model turns the kitchen into a community enterprise that provides livelihood to local women while improving taste, monitoring and trust. Tithi Bhojan complements this by adding occasional community-funded variety.
Keeping It Fair and Recorded
Community contributions should be inclusive — every child present should share equally, with no discrimination. Schools are encouraged to acknowledge and lightly record such contributions so there is transparency about what was provided, while keeping the regular meal records separate and intact for the prescribed menu.
A Spirit of Shared Responsibility
At its best, Tithi Bhojan reflects the idea that feeding children well is a shared responsibility, not the school's alone. It costs the scheme nothing yet enriches the meal and the relationship between school and society. For staff, the practical approach is to welcome contributions, ensure fairness, and keep the standard meal and its records unchanged.