NEW YORK, September 24, 2013 – China is the world’s second largest economy, yet 40 million rural Chinese children are suffering from malnutrition, with 26 million of these receiving compulsory education.
Amway China, through its Amway Charity Foundation (ACF), announced a “Commitment to Action” at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting in New York that will bring 2,000 “Spring Sprouts Kitchens” to rural schools within two years, ensuring 1 million Chinese children have access to nutritious school lunches.
With additional partners offering support through the Clinton Global Initiative, Spring Sprouts Kitchens can reach even more of the 26 million children not receiving adequate nutrition today.
“While the Chinese government mandates school attendance for children and provides food stipends for each student, there are few measures in place to ensure that these funds are used to feed these children and improve their nutritional outlook,” said Audie Wong, president of Amway China and executive vice chairman of the Amway Charity Foundation. “School buildings often have no kitchen facilities, so 26 million rural Chinese children are malnourished. Spring Sprouts Kitchens are the result of a unique public-private partnership to solve this problem -- ensuring rigorous compliance with stipend standards as well as a focusing on healthy, nutritious meals to improve the nutrition of these children.”
The ACF Commitment to Action builds on the Spring Sprouts Kitchens that currently serve 1,700 rural schools and 1 million students in 13 of the provinces that are home to the majority of the country’s 26 million malnourished children. Ongoing nutrition education is provided for staff, children and families. “Through this program we will hire, train and monitor kitchen staff; source local food; and provide balanced, nutritious, daily lunches for the children,” Wong added. “This effort will provide daily lunches for 1 million children in first through ninth grades. But this is only the beginning. We hope other Clinton Global Initiative members will join us to expand the reach of the program to reach more of the tens of millions of children who need access to healthy, nutritious food through their schools.”
In addition to the 1 million children to be served by this CGI Commitment to Action, more than 10,000 sustainable new jobs will be created and 12,000 farmers or small-scale producers will find a market for their fresh meats, eggs and vegetables based on food requirements of the Spring Sprout Kitchens.
Together with Amway, ACF has developed specifications for the sites that will receive a Spring Sprout Kitchen, including local governments’ agreements to provide kitchen staff salary and weekly funds needed to purchase high quality, fresh, local food. Amway’s procurement team implements and monitors the process until the kitchens have been installed by the local contractor and inspected.
According to the CGI, a Commitment to Action is a plan for addressing a significant global challenge. CGI supports the development of commitments by facilitating dialogue, providing opportunities to identify partners, showcasing the actions taken by commitment-makers and communicating results. CGI serves as a catalyst for action, but does not engage in the actual implementation of commitments.
About the Clinton Global Initiative
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 150 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date, CGI members have made more than 2,300 commitments, which are already improving the lives of more than 400 million people in over 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued at $73.5 billion.
