Children and families living in poverty often struggle with the basic necessities of life. Despite the efforts of hard-working parents and family members, it can be difficult to pay for education, supplies, and food as well as shelter and clothing for everyone in the family.
This is a reality for a staggering number of children throughout the country. This impacts children in formal and informal educational settings as well as those in vocational training programmes.
The Impact of Hunger on Children
In poor families, children and family members have limited access to healthy, nutritious meals. Many school children are not able to eat at home or at school, making it difficult to concentrate and focus on lessons.
However, the benefits of providing food for education in India include more than just students who are better able to learn. In addition, children with nutritious meals are healthier and tend to miss fewer days at school due to illness.
Feeding the Hungry
Providing food for education in India helps children overcome the challenges of trying to study while dealing with chronic malnourishment and hunger. Charitable trusts, in collaboration with NGOs, offer different programs that provide school children in formal and informal educational settings with one healthy, home-cooked meal per day.
With just one healthy meal a day, the programs that provide food for education make a dramatic impact on the lives of a child and their family. The parents know their child is eating a balanced, healthy, home-cooked meal at school, giving them comfort and peace of mind.
Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust provides a Food for Education programme for children in India. For more information on our projects, visit us at ratnanidhi.org. You can also follow us on Twitter for additional updates.
