The Ministry of Education held a press conference to release information on the Nutrition Improvement Program for Rural Compulsory Education Students

On August 30, 2016, the Ministry of Education held a second press conference to release information on the Nutrition Improvement Program for Rural Compulsory Education Students. He Xiuchao, director of the Office of the Steering Committee on Education under the State Council and director of the Education Supervision Bureau under the Ministry of Education, Liang Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ding Wei, Governor of Tongxin County, Ningxia, and representatives of local teachers and students attended the conference. At the press conference, Du Zhixin, director of the Center for Child Development of the CDRF, introduced the progress in the “School Nutrition Improvement Initiative” program and the supervision and evaluation results of the program through its data platform.

Since its launch in 2011, great progress has been made in the Nutrition Improvement Program for Rural Compulsory Education Students. It ensured that students had access to nutritious foods and paid special attention to physical growth and psychological health of rural children, especially left-behind children. However, according to its data platform (http://cdrf.chinacloudapp.cn/), there are some problems in the nutrition improvement program, including inefficient food provision, imbalanced menu with too much salt and oil, and wide difference in procurement price across the country due to a lack of supervision. The School Nutrition Improvement Initiative platform will strengthen research and assessment of the nutritional improvement program to use the funds allocated by the government in a direct and effective manner to ensure students in poverty-stricken areas have access to balanced nutrition and grow healthily.