Nutritious snacks will be given to children along with nutritious food every Thursday

Lucknow : The Yogi government has introduced a plan to provide nutritious snacks alongside regular meals for the holistic development of children in basic and junior high schools across the state. In a high-level meeting, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed officials to introduce a Weekly Nutrition Program in November, providing healthy snacks to students in basic and junior high schools every Thursday.

As part of the program, students will receive healthy snacks such as peanut chikki, millet laddus, and roasted grams. This initiative enhances the mid-day meal scheme, aiming to make it even more impactful, and will play a key role in fostering children’s physical and mental growth.

Under the PM Poshan Yojana, the state already delivers nutritious meals to 1.74 crore students from classes 1 to 8, with 100-150 grams of grains given daily. To further enhance children’s nutrition, items such as millet laddus, peanut chikki, roasted gram, and chakki laddus will be added.

The Yogi government is allocating approximately Rs 95 crore for this initiative, which will be supported by 3.72 lakh cooks across the state. The cooks will receive a monthly honorarium of Rs 2,000 each and an additional Rs 500 for uniforms, alongside regular training to ensure quality, nutritious meals.

The Chief Minister also emphasized digital monitoring and social audits to maintain transparency and track the supply and distribution of food grains, ensuring fair and effective implementation. While quality inspections are already conducted at the district level, digital oversight and social audits will provide a more robust and reliable means of monitoring.