Can Akshay Patra Banish Malnutrition ?

Business Line ( 01 June ) carries following news report :

The Akshaya Patra Foundation, an NGO focussing on providing mid-day meals to children, is in talks with food companies to co-create nutritious recipes and products that can supplement its offerings under the government’s flagship scheme.

Last week, leading companies such as Nestle India, PepsiCo India, GSK Consumer Healthcare, Reliance Fresh and Viacom18, announced commitments to support the NGO’s programme, ‘Feed the Future Now’, that aims to provide five billion freshly cooked meals to children by 2020.

Shridhar Venkat, Chief Executive Officer, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, said:

“The mid-day meals we serve children in schools is one of the most important meals, and sometimes, the only wholesome freshly cooked meal children get in a day. We are in exploratory talks with partners to look at ways to augment the nutrition intake in our mid-day meal programme.”

The NGO is likely to sign MoUs once its plans are formalised.

For instance, with PepsiCo India, the NGO is looking to co-create an OATMEAL-BASED NUTRITIOUS BAR that can supplement mid-day meals.

Venkat said the foundation has its own NUTRITION SPECIFICATIONS and hence is looking to collaborate with partners to ensure those standards are met.

Last week, nine private companies committed financial assistance and announced partnerships to create awareness about the NGO’s latest initiative.

Some of these companies have also reiterated their commitments to fortify their own products with nutrients, cut down on sugar and calories in their products and enhance focus on healthy products.

“By getting into private partnership, we hope to create an urgency in achieving our goals, and make a collaborative effort to implement our ‘Feed the Future Now’ initiative.

 We aim to serve five billion meals by 2020. Currently, we reach out to 1.6 million children across 12 States. So our focus is to scale up our efforts,” Venkat added.

I am glad that Akshay Patra , in close collaboration with the Government and the private sector Food Companies , has started implementing what I had suggested in :

Saving 1.2 Million Kids ( 29  June  2016  )

{ https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/06/saving-12-million-kids.html  }

Can we get rid of Malnutrition among poor kids , permanently ?

Yes , we definitely can if my suggestions in respect of the following parameters, too get implemented :

·         Food

·         Packing

·         Manufacturers

·         Delivery Points

·         Technology

And the role to be played by :

·         Women and Child development Ministry

·         Food Ministry

·         Post Offices

·         Community Health Centres

These suggestions are detailed at :

BANMALI  is  the TOTAL  SOLUTION  ( 14 Nov 2016 )

{ https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/11/banmali-is-total-solution.html }

06  June  2017

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