The new project partnership between the Happel Foundation Switzerland and HarvestPlus focuses on meals for school children in India. Millions of children in India still suffer from malnutrition. The lack of nutrients in early childhood has health consequences for the whole life.

Under the project, two million children between the ages of 6 and 10 receive a cooked healthy meal at school every day – regardless of gender or social status.

This daily school meal is prepared from fortified staple crops such as maize, cassava and potatoes. Enriched means that the food contains particularly high levels of valuable micronutrients such as iron, zinc and vitamin A as a result of biofortification. They are grown by local farmers.

To achieve this, the farmers change their cultivation methods and select special plant varieties. These varieties are not only more nutritious, but also higher-yielding and more climate-resilient. By selling their products for school meals, the farmers in turn secure the sale of their products and thus their income.

This creates a value chain from seed to school plate.