Your immune system is your best defense! As the country fights against the Covid-19 outbreak, CDIB Education & Cultural Affairs Foundation (hereinafter Foundation) extends its care to schoolchildren in remote areas of the country who are also affected by the pandemic. The Foundation announced the subsidy list of its “Nutrition 100” program, which plans to allocate NT$5 million for 226 middle schools and primary schools in remote areas nationwide, improving the diet of schoolchildren and keeping them well-nourished by providing them with fruit and milk.
Children in remote and rural areas are reliant on school meals as a key source of their daily nutrition. Yet due to insufficient funding or compromised access to food sources, many schools in remote areas are unable to purchase enough fruit and milk. CDF’s “Nutrition 100” program aims to keep economically disadvantaged schoolchildren in rural areas nourished and helps them establish a healthy dietary habit, so that they can develop better immunity to prevent COVID-19.
According to Chang, a teacher from Jian-Shin Elementary School in Fangyuan Township, Changhua County, before receiving subsidies from the CDF program, the students mostly ate affordable fish varieties containing heavy metals. Now with the subsidies, they have access to snappers, basa fish, and milkfish, which are good sources of Omega-3 and Vitamin D. The school meal program secretary from Xinghua Elementary School in Erlin Township also stated that, “The kids are the happiest when they have milk in their school meals. After drinking milk for some period of time, the children have grown a lot taller and maintained a more normal BMI.” Moreover, some parents intend to transfer their kids to Xinghua upon hearing that students here have access to milk and fruits weekly.
In order to fulfill the company’s social responsibilities, CDF has long been promoting its “Nutrition 100” program through CDIB Education & Cultural Affairs Foundation. Since its subsidies for 36 schools in Taitung County 16 years ago, the program has now expanded to a total of 10 cities and counties, including Ilan, Taitung, and Jiayi, with over 10,000 subsidy recipients per year, laying a good foundation for the children’s health as well as benefiting them both educationally and culturally.
