London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Job title: Engagement Manager

Organisation: International Innovation Corps

Location: New Delhi, India

Email address: [email protected]

Tell us about your current role.

I am an Engagement Manager at the International Innovation Corps (IIC), a social impact program under the University of Chicago Trust in India, and I lead the work on education and nutrition.

IIC works on creating scalable solutions for critical social challenges and nurturing the future leaders of development by recruiting, mentoring, and deploying top-performing young professionals within the Indian government and leading social enterprises, where they work closely with them to drive systemic reforms.

What’s something exciting that you’ve worked on recently?

One of the projects I lead at IIC examines how technology can improve the quality and accountability of school meal delivery in Andhra Pradesh, India, where a new model, known as the SMART Kitchens, is being piloted. SMART Kitchens are government-run mechanised kitchen facilities under the Andhra Pradesh Mid-Day Meal Programme that consolidate meal procurement, cooking and distribution into a single institutional point, replacing decentralised school-level cooking with a hub-and-spoke delivery model. 

What makes the model interesting is the "sustainability-first" approach, wherein the school meal programme is recognised as a key entry point to address interconnected challenges for health, nutrition and the environment, in line with the ethos of the planet-friendly school meals framework.

What did school meals look like when you were growing up?

I went to a private school, so I couldn’t experience public school feeding programmes at the time, but from what I heard of it growing up, it was one of the major contributors to school attendance and retention rates. Working on school meals now and hearing similar testimonials from the field myself reassured me of the same.

What impact do you hope your work will have?

At the local level, we hope our work connects more children to healthier and safer school meals, while creating predictable institutional demand for local, regenerative farmers. At the national and global level, we hope our work creates a replicable blueprint for sustainable school meals, one that is informed by global advancements yet rooted in the local context. 

How can people get involved or stay up to date with your work?

We are just an email away. Reach us at [email protected] and [email protected]. You can also follow us on LinkedIn at International Innovation Corps and Shraddha Shrivastava.