Last week, a consignment of dry food was donated to the school's mid-day meal programme by the United States government, and the programme is scheduled to recommence soon. The consignment consisting of 890 metric tonnes of rose salmon and 2000 metric tonnes of dhal aims to improve the nutritional quality of the mid-day meal programme. The mid-day meal programme, which came to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, will be re-launched next month through the collective efforts of the Education Ministry, the Health Ministry and the Save the Children organisation.
The programme was launched in 2015 to provide nutritional meals to school children from low-income backgrounds, to improve their learning attention and skills. It also provided an incentive to children from low-income earning families to attend school. The programme was also affected by the economic crisis prevailing in the country. Moreover, China also promised to distribute 10,000 metric tonnes of rice to children in poverty-stricken homes. Accordingly, more than one million children from around 8,000 rural schools in the country would receive assistance through this mid-day meal programme. (CC)