Bhubaneswar, April 20: Students of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) will now wake up to bowls of crisp cornflakes and milk.

The initiative is part of a memorandum of understanding signed between KISS and Kellogg India in Mumbai on April 6. Shalini Bijaya Gopalan of Kellogg India and KISS founder Achyuta Samanta signed the deal.

As part of the agreement, the cereal giant will provide a breakfast of cornflakes with milk to 25,000 tribal students of KISS free of cost. The project will be carried out as part of the company's corporate social responsibility initiative.

KISS is billed as the largest residential institute for the tribal community in the world, providing free accommodation, food, health care, education from kindergarten to post-graduation, vocational training and several other basic amenities along with a job on completion of education.

Kellogg India will also provide the required bowls and spoons to the students of KISS.

"This is probably the first time that a company has come forward to provide breakfast to a record number of students. We are extremely happy to be providing breakfast to KISS students," Gopalan said after signing the deal.

Until now, the students used to have chuda (flattned rice), a staple breakfast in most tribal-dominated areas of the state.

Samanta, on his part, also thanked Kellogg for the gesture.

"KISS is the world's largest free residential tribal institute and it lays utmost importance on providing nutritious and hygienic food to its students. The institute has its own water filtration plant which purifies water through reverse-osmosis process," he said.

The students and their guardians have also expressed their happiness over this development.

"It was always tempting to see kids having cornflakes and milk on television. It's great to know that we will be getting it here, too. I hope they have an alternative for kids who do not like milk," said Bhagyalaxmi Barik, a KISS student from Keonjhar.

Although the project was supposed to start from April 11, it was postponed due to the state government's direction to close all schools due to the ongoing heatwave.

"Our students have left for their homes and hence, the project will start after the classes resume," said the KISS authorities.