China Development Foundation under China Development Financial Holding Corporation (CDF) has been running "Nutrition 100 Program" for years, subsidizing schools in rural areas to provide adequate nutrients for children’s lunch plan. The Foundation recently unveiled the 2022 grant list, a total of NT$5 million will be granted to 223 primary and secondary schools in 10 cities including Taitung, Yilan, Pingtung, Kaohsiung, Chiayi, Nantou, Changhua, Miaoli, Hsinchu, and Taoyuan, benefiting 11,195 students.
The inflation not only impacts living costs, but also increases the difficulty for schools to provide nutritious lunches, especially rural schools with limited budgets. China Development Foundation under CDF has promoted the "Nutrition 100 Program" for 17 consecutive years, granting subsidies to rural schools with insufficient resources. The 2022 program plans to assist more than 200 rural schools in total to improve the nutritional quality and diversity of students’ lunch.
Zhentou Elementary School in Tongxiao Town, Miaoli County, is one of the subsidized schools under the "Nutrition 100 Program." Xiu-ling Hsu, Director of General Affairs, said that the average cost for one student’s lunch is about NT$ 40 dollars in Miaoli County. Now that the prices of food and ingredients have risen, and the wages of kitchen workers have also increased, making it more challenging to sustain nutritious school lunches. The school has tried to seek solutions. In addition to add NT$5 dollars of meal plan fee from each student, it also needs to raise funds externally. Director Hsu said, "thanks to the fund provided by Nutrition 100 Program, our children can drink milk and fruit at least twice a week."
Xinfa Elementary School in Kaohsiung City uses the funds to provide after-school snacks for school children. Ms. Lin, the lunch secretary, said that many parents from less privileged families were unable to take care of their children after school hours. The school arranged after-school activities to keep students in school and prepared snacks for their children so that they would not go home hungry.
CDF has been implementing the ESG initiatives for a long time. With the public welfare strategy of building an inclusive society, "Nutrition 100 Program" reaches out to school children in remote areas, balance the gap between urban and rural resources, and live up to the vision of sustainable development.
