Vehicle routing for a mid-day meal delivery distribution system

This paper considers the distribution system of a school feeding program (mid-day meals), wherein a set of delivery vehicles transfer cooked food from a kitchen facility to various schools within a specified delivery deadline. The food is required to be delivered before the lunch period, which is consistent across all the schools. A delay in food delivery can deprive students of their lunch, and, therefore, designing the vehicle routes for such distribution systems and maintaining a strict delivery deadline becomes critical. The resultant problem is identified as a vehicle routing problem with a common due date (VRPCDD). We provide a formulation for the VRPCDD and thereby focus on suggesting solution methods. In addition, we also demonstrate the practical application of VRPCDD by focusing on a real-life problem of a mid-day meal provider operating in the Chhattisgarh province of India.