world food program xiangxi project comes to an end
2024-10-04
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on june 27, children received lunch at century new kindergarten in difang town, longshan county, xiangxi tujia and miao autonomous prefecture, hunan province. photo by xinhua news agency reporter lin jianjiexinhua news agency, changsha, october 1 (reporter lin jianjie) digging a spoonful of sweet potato puree into a cone, and then sprinkled with cantaloupe seeds, the children made their own "sweet potato ice cream" under the guidance of the teacher. "sweet potato ice cream" paired with a carton of milk is an afternoon snack for children at qicai kindergarten in furong town, yongshun county.
qicai kindergarten is one of the second phase project parks of the united nations world food program’s hunan xiangxi preschool children’s nutrition improvement plan. principal xiang haiyan said that after joining the project, the kindergarten received a subsidy of 4 yuan per child per day. in accordance with the project standards of "two meals, one meal" and "one meat, one vegetarian and one soup", the kindergarten not only added afternoon snacks, breakfast and lunch the nutrition is also richer and more balanced.
from 2018 to 2024, the united nations world food program cooperated with hunan provincial department of agriculture and rural affairs and other relevant departments to carry out this pilot project in longshan county and yongshun county in xiangxi tujia and miao autonomous prefecture to explore improving the nutritional level and improvement of rural preschool children. sustainable solutions for farmers’ livelihoods. the project has designed four major modules: nutritional meals, small farmer assistance, nutrition education, and equipment procurement.
the second phase of the project was launched in september 2021 and concluded this month, covering 4,365 preschool children in 27 kindergartens. on september 30, the wfp preschool child nutrition improvement project end-line evaluation results exchange seminar was held online. the third-party evaluation team introduced and shared the end-line evaluation results and findings of the second phase of the project.
the end-line evaluation shows that the nutritional indicators of children in the project kindergarten have improved overall. the detection rates of growth retardation, underweight, emaciation, overweight, and obesity in sample children were all lower than those in the control group, with the growth retardation rate declining most significantly.
on the afternoon of june 26, children made snacks in qicai kindergarten in furong town, yongshun county, xiangxi tujia and miao autonomous prefecture, hunan province. photo by xinhua news agency reporter lin jianjiejishou university normal college participated in the recipe formulation and nutrition education in the second phase of the project. "every month we will develop a quantitative recipe for the reference of the project kindergarten, and the recipe incorporates local seasonal ingredients." wu feng'e, a professional teacher of preschool education at the college, said that the person in charge of the kindergarten also needs to take photos of meal preparation ingredients and nutritious meals and send them to wechat every day group, the college team will provide timely feedback.
“in the past three years, teachers and students of our college have carried out continuous nutrition education work for kindergarten teachers, parents and children.” tian hong, deputy dean of jishou university teachers college, said, “the project has connected universities and rural kindergartens, and the project practice has it will help the construction of the preschool education major, and the students who graduate from this major will promote the development of rural early childhood education.”
tang guifang, deputy director of century new kindergarten in dianfang town, longshan county, said that teachers are both "learners" and "communicators" and not only integrate nutrition knowledge into the classroom, but also emphasize health knowledge at parent-teacher meetings every month, from time to time. share popular science videos in parent groups.
"parents have changed a lot in their nutritional concepts and cooking habits. they used to think that just eating enough was enough, but now they are more aware of the importance of nutritional matching and use less oil and salt when cooking." tang guifang said.
on june 26, children made snacks in qicai kindergarten in furong town, yongshun county, xiangxi tujia and miao autonomous prefecture, hunan province. photo by xinhua news agency reporter lin jianjiethe project also organically connects school meals with local smallholder farmers. by developing an innovative supply chain oriented to the demand for school meals, the project attracts low-income farmers, ethnic minority households and rural women, and leads farmers to participate in multiple links of the supply chain, which not only ensures the effective supply of ingredients required for the project's nutritious meals, but also it also drives farmers to develop production, improve planting and breeding levels, and expand agricultural product sales channels.
yi zungang, director of the foreign investment and foreign aid project affairs center of xiangxi prefecture, said that the project follows the idea of "children eat what farmers grow" and recommends farmers to plant and breed nutritious local ingredients. it organizes and assists farmers to participate in production skill improvement at least twice a year. for training, the project garden will use no less than 30% of the food subsidy funds to purchase agricultural products from small farmers, which will help establish a local nutritional ecosystem.
it is reported that in the second phase of the project, a total of 157 small farmers were assisted to generate an income of more than 1.43 million yuan. among them, 148 small farmers who planted and raised provided 145,000 kilograms of agricultural products to the project park, generating an income of more than 1 million yuan.
"improving child nutrition globally remains an important issue that needs to be addressed. it is our common responsibility to ensure that everyone has access to nutritious, safe, affordable and sustainable diets." said zhao bing, world food program representative in china, " we will also share the practical experience accumulated in the project with other countries through the south-south cooperation knowledge sharing platform website, technical exchanges and seminars.”
