CISSA is adjudged the NGO providing the best service for the promotion of jackfruit, making it eligible for an award instituted by Jackfruit Promotion Council and Santhigram. Hon. Minister for Agriculture, Kerala, Shri. V.S. Sunil Kumar handed over the award, comprising of a memento, citation and cash prize to CISSA’s General Secretary, Dr. C. Suresh Kumar today at a solemn function held at Santhigram premises in Thiruvananthapuram on 20 July.
The citation states that CISSA’s Annam good food movement and concerted efforts by its members who are professionals from different fields of knowledge have led to widespread awareness in the society about jackfruit and its nutritional and medicinal values. The Minister also honoured Dr. C. Suresh Kumar by draping the latter with a shawl.
As CISSA’s altruistic services stand recognized, here is a short retrospective of the path traversed:
When Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food International launched the ambitious Annam people’s movement for good food, it didn’t require more than a year and half for CISSA to organize the historic Annam Good Food Festival in 2008. Since then Annam has been held as a biennial event; whereas yet another glittering consequence of the movement was a groundbreaking National Jackfruit Festival in 2011. CISSA’s ideology of doing things jointly with the participation and support from the like-minded paid off well – for the first ever Jackfruit festival, there was a large group of organizations assembling to make the event a milestone. The festival naturally resulted in the formation of many devoted, selfless people’s initiatives for safeguarding the pride of an extensively useful jackfruit and its tree. Since 2011, seen are prolific initiatives by socially committed organizations like Santhigram and Jackfruit Promotion Council conducting Jackfruit Festivals regularly so that a revolutionary change in the approach towards Jackfruit was resulted. CISSA continues to support all such missions as and when required.
