Mumbai: 400 students fall ill after eating packed lunch at Mock UN event

The muchhyped Indian International Model United Nations IIMUN conference the worldrsquos largest model UN convention came under a cloud on Thursday when 300400 participating school children took ill after eating the lunch served by popular food service provider Box8 across various venuesThe muchhyped Indian International Model United Nations IIMUN conference the worldrsquos largest model UN convention came under a cloud on Thursday when 300400 participating school children took ill after eating the lunch served by popular food service provider Box8 across various venuesIIMUN programmes were hosted at KC College Thadomal Sahani College of Engineering Whistling Woods Institute and Lala Lajpatrai College on Thursday The organizers said there were around 1500 students at each of the four centres Within 30 minutes of the food being served 2030 students vomited at each centreStudents from schools like Parle Tilak Beacon High Gurukul and Billabong were among Thursdayrsquos participantsAkshata Jain director general of IIMUN in an email statement said ldquoAround 300400 people fell ill vomited and fainted and have been hospitalizedrdquoDodgy managementSanjay B Jumani whose daughter complained of uneasiness at the Bandra centre said the session began at 930 am and the participants were served vegetable biryani with a curry around 1230 pm ldquoWithin 45 minutes the children began vomiting A few of them were sent home by teachersrdquoJumani received an SOS call from his daughter around 3 pm ldquoAs I neared the college I saw many of them throwing up Two of them were in a bad shape they were shivering and lying on the floor I spoke to their parents and rushed them to the Hinduja Healthcare in KharrdquoAnother parent whose daughter mdash a student of Shishuvan in Matunga mdash was at Lala Lajpat Rai College said the child later revealed that the curry had a foul smellldquoShe vomited more than three times and has a severe stomachache It wasnrsquot just the quality of food The venue was cramped and stuffy It was very hot Even after the children threw up there was no one to clean up the messrdquoThe food pointed out a parent of another affected student had arrived in packed boxes ldquoIn this heat itrsquos very important to have a reliable provider that meets all quality standards and follows the appropriate food transportserving procedures He too pointed at poor management by IIMUN organisers ldquoFor an event this big everything must be planned wellrdquoAnother parent agreed ldquoThe event was poorly organised The organisers did not even look after the childrenrsquos health My child had eaten just one morsel of the food when some volunteer asked her to throw it But she still threw up three times at the venue After an injection and some pills her condition is now stablerdquoNo FIR yetShubhadra Shenoy viceprincipal of Shishuvan School said some students threw up and others complained of headache ldquoNo one is seriously ill Many students did not eat the lunch because they felt that the food had gone badrdquo Two of the 50 students of Shishuvan School complained of vomiting others reported headachesTwo of the 65 students of HVB Global Academy Churchgate who were at KC College too vomited said principal Chandrakanta Pathak Other participants from the school complained of headache and nausea a lucky few did not touch the food ldquoThe school and parents have decided to withdraw our participation An email will be sent to the organizers about this irresponsible conduct and our money should be reimbursedrdquo said PathakDeputy Commissioner of Police Dhananjay Kulkarni said during the seminar at Thadomal Sahani College of Engineering which had around 1400 students participated in it five students vomited within half an hour of the food packets being served ldquoThree were taken to Hinduja in Khar and two to Holy Family Hospital Of these two have been discharged The others are still in hospital but out of danger An investigation into the food poisoning is onrdquoAccording to Kulkarni the police are recording statements but no FIR has been filedSourced from ThaneRishabh Shah founderpresident of IIMUN said the organisers had a commercial agreement with Box8 for Thursdayrsquos events ldquoWhen reports of food poisoning came in we asked Box8 to make alternative arrangements for food But it refused to do so All organisers had to together raise a fund of around R10 lakh from our pockets to provide food to the participantsrdquoAs per the agreement the food was to be sourced by Box8 from four different venues to ensure that it would remain hot and freshldquoWe later found out that all of the food came from a place in Thane Box8 officials did not bother to even take a review of the situation The least they can do is tender a public apologyrdquo said ShahIIMUN said it planned to file a police complaintAnshul Gupta cofounder of Box8 did not respond to middayrsquos several calls SMSes and an email with a detailed questionnaire Box8rsquos PR office had assured that it would get back with a statement but it too didnrsquot respondIIMUN comprises youths in the age group of 1624