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 )
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 )
06
June 2017
www.hemenparekh.in / blogs
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