Bengaluru, 26 Feb

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday launched a State-wide Annapoorna Morning Nutrition programme in all government schools.

The programme is a brainchild of Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai, with the motto – 'Let no child go to school hungry ever!', according to officials. According to Sri Sathya Sai Annapoorna Trust, Karnataka has been the hub of Annapoorna's services for the past nine years, and what started with just feeding 50 children in the State, growing in phases to about 3,62,243 children across 5,085 schools, has today whizzed through the whole of Karnataka to reach 53,619 schools embracing under its care an additional 55 lakh children.

With this, almost all the government school-going children in Karnataka will receive their morning nutrition through a ''unique'' multi-nutrient supplement, 'SaiSure', specially customised for children, a Trust statement said. "Since 2013, the Karnataka government's 'Ksheera Bhagya' initiative has supplied milk to government school-going children five days a week.  A budget of about Rs 731 crores has also been approved for this programme this year. By launching SaiSure, which addresses nutritional inadequacies, prevents anaemia, and promotes children's holistic development, Sri Sathya Sai Annapoorna Trust has added even more value to our efforts," the Chief Minister said.

"A ragi-variant or a malt-variant of SaiSure will be supplied to all the government schools by Annapoorna, and all it takes is to mix the SaiSure Health Mix along with the milk that is given to all children by Karnataka's 'Ksheera Bhagya' Programme. SaiSure can also be partaken with jaggery and water," the statement said.

The farming community of Karnataka is also benefiting in a big way as the Trust purchases organically-grown ragi millet through the Subhiksha Organic Farmers' Multi-State Cooperative Society Ltd, which offers a seamless transaction from farmers to consumers, thereby compensating the farmers fairly enough for their livelihood, much above MSP, it said. ''Annapoorna Morning Nutrition Programme is today India's largest one for morning nutrition, as it serves 90 lakh children throughout India, in 25 States and five Union Territories, '' the statement added.