New Delhi, Nov 25 (IANS): The Centre has invited food ministers from across the country on Thursday to discuss the issue of community kitchen and other issues that will lead to the creation of a national food grid for those persons who are beyond the scope of the Public Distribution System to fight with hunger and malnutrition.

Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Piyush Goyal will chair the meeting organised by the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) under his ministry.

The meeting is prompted due to a writ petition in the Supreme Court regarding establishing the concept of community kitchens across the country, formulation of requisite scheme to provide food to the needy persons and creating a national food grid for those persons who are beyond the scope of the Public Distribution System to fight with hunger and malnutrition.

Incidentally, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) data released on Wednesday has revealed falling nutritional indicators across several states.

The Supreme Court has directed the Union of India to come up with a 'Model Community Kitchens Scheme' agreeable to the states/union territories (UT) within three weeks' time.

The Court has also directed all the state governments/union territories to attend the meeting to be arranged/organised by the Union of India and cooperate with them in coming up with the said scheme, which can be made uniformly applicable to all the states/union territories.

Some of the likely key issues that will be discussed during the meeting are Model Community Kitchen Scheme, One Nation One Ration Card-status of implementation, Aadhaar seeding of Ration Cards, Biometrically authenticated FPS transactions and others.

Earlier, the Secretary, DFPD, held a meeting on November 21, 2021 with the Chief Secretaries and Food Secretaries of states and UTs to discuss the model Community Kitchen Scheme.