India Fortification of Meals for School Children Project

Project Overview

GAIN supported Naandi Foundation to set up innovative models for the fortification of midday meals for school children in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Since 2003, Naandi Foundation has been preparing and distributing food for the Midday Meal Programme in these states. Current facilities will be used to demonstrate the feasibility of the fortification of midday meals under different conditions which could be adopted by the government for replication across other states in India. Strategies include fortifying biscuits, lentils (dal), wheat flour, rice-based foods and biscuits as an add-on.

Goal

The goal of the project was to reduce micronutrient deficiencies. The objective was to demonstrate the technical and operational feasibility of providing fortified meals to school children under the Midday Meal Programme and contribute to reducing the prevalence of malnutrition in government schools in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

Impact

The project aimed to provide 400,000 school children between the ages of 5 and 12 in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh with fortified meals through the government-sponsored Midday Meal Programme.

Achievements

The project was initiated with a target of 400,000 beneficiaries. However, during the tenure of the project, it has been possible to provide 1,000,000 school children with fortified foods at the same cost through innovative fortification strategies.

Duration

The project was funded from April 2007 to August 2009. GAIN is considering continuing this partnership with a second phase.