How nutritional food helps in children development?

by Feed The Future Now Feed The Future Now

Childhood is the most tender and eventful of all developmental stages. Each day during the formative years witnesses a new development. Be it physical, cognitive, social, emotional, or language and communication, parents are in for a new treat almost every day. But, to achieve developmental milestones at appropriate age, children need to receive adequate nourishment. Nutrition-rich diet becomes a vital necessity for proper growth and development of children. Understanding this fact, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, a mid-day meal NGO in India has undertaken an initiative to feed the future by providing wholesome school lunch to government school children.

Nourish the future

It is imperative that whatever children receive during their formative years gets manifested during the later years of their life. If children receive proper nourishment and education, they grow up to be healthy and independent; else they become dependent citizens of the country. However, it also cannot be denied that poor socio-economic status poses as a big hurdle for parents to provide nutritious meals to their children. There is no two way about nutritious food contributing towards proper development in children. And, remaining specific to nutrition-rich food provided through mid-day meals, several impact studies have revealed that school lunch has positively altered growth and development of children. There has been a marked improvement in factors related to enrolment, attendance, level of concentration during classroom lessons, participation in school activities, health, and socialisation among beneficiaries of mid-day meal.

Aware of this situation, Akshaya Patra strives to provide at least one wholesome meal per day to children of government schools. And, through ‘Feed the Future Now’, this NGO is trying to garner support from all sections of the society in its endeavour to provide nutrition-rich food to school children. In order to feed the children and to further this initiative, established corporates namely GlaxoSmithKline, PepsiCo, Nestle, Reliance Fresh, Viacom18, Facebook, Big FM, PVR Cinemas and The Lalit Group of Hotels have extended their wholehearted support.

Celebrities

The initiative has also received support from some of the renowned names in the world of celebrities such as Sanjeev Kapoor (Celebrity Chef and Entrepreneur), Shankar Mahadevan (Composer and Playback Singer), Vivek Oberoi (Indian Actor), and Sonali Bendre (Indian Actress).

As Shankar Mahadevan, Goodwill Ambassador for Akshaya Patra rightly puts across, “Malnutrition is one of those issues that require urgent attention. The emphasis should not be on feeding just food but providing a nutritious meal. I implore more friends from the fraternity to join hands with the movement, and help us make our country a Poshit Bharat, Shikshit Bharat (Nourished India, Educated India).” Acceding to this Vivek Oberoi adds, “We, as a country has had so many achievements at the global platform but hidden hunger still remains an obstacle to sustaining education and achieving one’s full potential. ‘Feed the Future Now’ aims to combat this issue and I am glad to pledge support to its mission of nourishing the future of India so that kids get a holistic upbringing, just like we all did.”

Though it may sound clichéd, but nobody can deny the fact that children are the future. And, only a nourished childhood will lead to an enriched future. But it requires a concentrated effort from all of us in providing nutrition-rich food to the young generation. Let us together take a step forward to feed the children for a future that we will be proud of.