Experts from international agencies such as World Food Programme (WFP) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are participating
The M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), in collaboration with Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF), is conducting a three-day virtual consultation on the school feeding programme. The consultation “Augmenting Nutrition in Mid Day Meal Scheme” is scheduled for 4, 7, and 11 January 2022.
The three-day consultation aims to bring global and national experts to one platform to share their experiences and scale up the Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) model. These models link smallholder farmers with the scheme, promoting school nutrition gardens in school and nutrition literacy among school children.
The Chief Scientist of World Health Organisation, Dr Soumya Swaminathan inaugurated the consultation and delivered the keynote address. “We need multi-pronged approach to address malnutrition among our children. Diversifying our Mid-day meals, encourage consumption of fruit and vegetable at home can be more effective way to address malnutrition among children”, she said.
“3 out of 5 girls and boys of 10-19 years age-group did not have fruit, meat, and egg even once the past week in Bihar”, said Dr Rabi Narayan Pari, Nutrition specialist, UNICEF India, Bihar.
“Govt. of Kerala has set up nutrition garden in 6525 schools where garden produce vegetables & fruits used in preparing mid-day meal to improve nutrition intake”, said Dhanya Kumar, Dy Director General of Education, Govt. of Kerala.
Implementing the Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) has successfully addressed classroom hunger, improved students’ enrollment ratio, and promoted social equity. The scheme is the largest school meal programme in the world, reaching over 120 million children studying in 1.14 million schools daily.