India's school meal programme, now known as PM POSHAN, provides cooked meals in government and government-aided schools. Serving arrangements differ from one school to another. A Government of India monitoring report from Maharashtra explicitly observed that children in some surveyed schools stood in queues to receive their mid-day meal. Elsewhere, pupils remained seated while food was served.
The same programme can therefore produce different kinds of waiting: children may move towards the meal, or the meal may come to their places. A queue is a simple way to share a limited serving point, but it can also determine how much of a short break remains for eating. The order of lunch is a small point where a national nutrition policy becomes an ordinary school day.