To fight nutrition issues among kids, 35 kitchen gardens developed - Hindustan Times
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To fight nutrition issues among kids, 35 kitchen gardens developed

ByPreety Acharya
Sep 20, 2019 10:11 PM IST

Noida: To tackle malnourishment among children in Gautam Budh Nagar, the administration has come up with a novel solution — setting up kitchen gardens in various parts of the district where healthy vegetables can be grown easily.

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As part of a month-long drive, 35 kitchen gardens have been set up to encourage people to grow healthy vegetables such as spinach, fenugreek leaves, coriander and bottle gourd so that children can be fed nutritious food that is not very expensive.

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The drive started on September 1 and will continue till September 30. According to officials, there are around 3,300 malnourished children, in the age group of 1 and 6, in the district and 648 of them are severely malnourished. Officials are reaching out to parents to make them understand the importance of giving children healthy food.

“Malnourishment among children is decided by taking the weight and measuring the arm circumference of children,” Dr Anurag Bhargava, chief medical officer, Gautam Budh Nagar, said.

Officials are helping people set up kitchen gardens on land that is lying unused and also on government land. “We require only a small area for a kitchen garden. We are encouraging people to start growing healthy vegetables at home. Parents have been told about the nutrition value of vegetables. We have been trying to develop kitchen gardens at houses of young children and pregnant women,” AK Singh, chief development officer, Gautam Budh Nagar, said.

“Each day, we focus on one issue like weight, importance of nutrition, distribution of nutritious food packets, etc,” Singh said.

Officials along with local bodies have been organising rallies to spread awareness on the issue.

“We are spreading awareness about the importance of having nutritious food since the time of pregnancy and it should continue till the child is six years old. We are distributing study material to newlywed couples and parents of young children,” Singh said.

Parents have been informed about the free government facilities available at government hospitals to fight malnourishment.

Officials are distributing nutritious food packets which are in powder form, which can be mixed with food. Severely affected children are taken to the National Resource Centre in Bhangel where they are kept for 14 days till they recover.

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