Importance of Akshaya Patra's Nutritious Food for Children

Most of the kids these days are generally hooked up on junk food.

As a result of which, children land up eating smaller portions of nutritious food.

Peer pressure, TV commercials, roadside eateries and fried food create battles between parents and their children.

Importance of nutrition in children

Ensuring that children eat a well-balanced diet is crucial for their growth and development. Children constantly grow at a rapid rate outgrowing their clothes. What fits them today may not fit in the next 1 month or so. So be prepared to keep investing in good food and some clothes.

Nutrition can also help in establishing a strong foundation for healthy eating habits. These habits inculcated at a very young age will most likely be carried on to the adulthood stage too. This means that if you teach your child to eat carrots over finger chips, this habit may last throughout their lifetime.

Eating nutritious food also has another long-term effect on children. It helps in building immunity and resistance to nutrition-related diseases that can kick in early in the adulthood stages of life. For example, eating fried food frequently results in high cholesterol levels during early adulthood leading to further complications.

Understanding the importance of healthy meals at a very young age, it was necessary to make healthy meals accessible to children of all walks of life. For children who are privileged, healthy meals are easily accessible.

But, what about children who come from challenging backgrounds?

Can they afford healthy meals?

Meals are a huge ask in itself, healthy meals are beyond their affordability.

Then what is their next possible solution?

For most parents, sending children to Government schools means free food for children in school. These meals become the reason why parents don’t mind sending their children to school rather than pushing them to work as a helping hand to their family’s financial situation.

To encourage more parents to send their children to school, the Government of India made provisions under the PM POSHAN Abhiyaan to serve nutritious mid-day meals to children.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an NGO in India that implements the world’s largest school feeding programme.

Akshaya Patra is spread across 65 locations and caters to every day nutritional requirements of 1.8 million beneficiaries with mid-day meals. It caters to the local palates of children spread across 14 states and 2 union territories.

By providing unlimited food for education of children, this NGO in India supports the health and nutrition of children.

Children who initially do not value education, start coming to school to get education and realise the importance of studying and achieving. When they become regular at school, they feel that they too play an important in society.

Make an online donation to give wings to children, to make them realise that their dreams can come true too.