Nutrition project gives rural kids enough food for thought

Food awareness

At 2:30 pm, children at Rainbow Kindergarten in Furong town wake from their nap. The teacher shows them how to make ice cream cones with sweet potatoes and cantaloupe.

She starts with a cone wrapped in pink Hello Kitty paper, fills it with mashed sweet potatoes, and adds diced cantaloupe on top as "sprinkles". The kids enjoy the "ice cream "for their afternoon snack, along with a small bottle of milk.

"Meals need to be both nutritious and appealing," said Xiang Haiyan, headmaster of the kindergarten. After three years in the program, the preschool can now make dishes that meet nutrition guidelines. In class, teachers educate the children about nutrition, and in the hallway there are displays of vegetables made by the kids.

Zhang, the local official, proudly noted that the snacks once sold outside the school gate are gone. Before, the children were tempted by vendors with unhealthy fried foods, but now the main sight after school is parents and cars picking up their children.

"The health and nutrition awareness of children, parents, and teachers has greatly improved," he said.

Snack sellers have also disappeared from outside Xinmiao Kindergarten in Miaoertan town. Teacher Yan Zhilan once clashed with a popcorn vendor who set up at the school entrance and constantly shouted through a megaphone.

"I told him to leave because snacks aren't healthy for the kids. He refused, so I told all the children not to buy from him. He didn't sell a single bag, and he hasn't returned since," Yan said.

Children no longer ask for snacks or beverages on their way to school or heading back home, she said. More parents are buying milk for their children and asking the kindergarten for cooking tips, as their kids love the meals.

According to the nutrition assessment released by the Normal College of Jishou University in late August, children in the intervention group show greater improvement than those in the control group across several areas. The improvements are in areas such as micronutrients, stunted growth, underweight, wasting, overweight, and obesity. Notably, the anemia rate among these children has dropped to zero.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government is increasing its investment in early childhood education. In 2022, national funding for preschool education reached 298.22 billion yuan, accounting for 6.2 percent of total education spending — a 1.8 fold increase on 2013.