The Perfect Nutrition Program of CDIB Education & Cultural Affairs Foundation is open to applications from April 2 to April 30. Primary and middle schools in remote areas of Taiwan with no more than 100 students are eligible to apply for subsidies to augment school lunches. Successful applicants will receive subsidies for one year.
The Perfect Nutrition Program has been running for over a decade. The purpose of the program is to narrow the gap of meal funding between rural and urban schools. Currently, many small schools in remote areas of the country can only provide lunches on budgets that are below the national average. While the schools do serve three dishes and soup for lunch every day, studies show that both the fruit consumption and calcium intake of students in remote areas of Taiwan are insufficient. Also, the supply of fruit is subject to seasonality, and costs can vary substantially. For small schools that do not have bargaining power over suppliers, keeping school lunches on budget has long been a major challenge.
Huanan Elementary School, located in Gukeng, Yunlin, has applied for CDIB Foundation’s subsidy program for three consecutive years. Mr. Yang, the school lunch director, said that because more than 40% of the students at Huanan come from financially disadvantaged families, it’s difficult for the school to increase lunch fees. But thanks to CDIB’s subsidy program, students may now have fruit for lunch twice a week, and enjoy protein-strong meals of meat and fish more often than they used to. On Thanksgiving Day, the school can now even afford roast turkey as an additional dish, which makes the children very excited.
China Development Financial has long been committed to bridging the gap seen in the educational resources of rural and urban areas of Taiwan. The Perfect Nutrition Program was launched in 2006 with the aim of improving the diet of school children in remote areas, with beneficiaries of the program having expanded from middle and elementary schools in Taitung to those in Yilan, Changhwa, Nantou, Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung, Kaohsiung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu over the last 13 years. The program has helped more than 10,000 students on average every year. For details about how to apply, please visit the website of CDIB Education & Cultural Affairs Foundation at www.cdibf.org.
