Nutrition

Addenbrooke's Abroad Presentation (with pictures, 68 MB)
Addenbrooke's Abroad Presentation (without most pictures, 10 MB)

Dietary Guidelines For Indians, National Institute of Nutrition, Indian Council of Medical Research.

Rama Foundation is looking forward to collaborating with Mother Miracle on the next stage of development in improving Nutritional status of their children, and the community at large.

Mother Miracle describe the plans for the new project:

'The students of Mother Miracle School come from very poor backgrounds, and their families are unable to provide adequate food to address their nutritional needs. They presently eat a hot lunch in the school every day, but for most of them, this is the only nutritional meal they eat all day long. Assessments of their students by dietitians from Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, UK have revealed deficiencies in vitamins A, B12, and C as well as calcium, protein, zinc, and iodine. In a new baking and cooking facility, they plan to develop a range of healthy, fortified foods so that they can meet the full nutritional needs of each student every day in their school. This facility will feed growing number of school children (presently 184, but projected to grow to 340 in the next six years), and surplus baked goods will be sold locally to generate income to support the school and the nutrition program.
The Impact:
The bakery and kitchen program will serve three purposes in Mother Miracle: first, improving their children's daily nutritional intake; second, generating revenue to reinvest in the nutrition and education programs; and third, empowering downtrodden women in the local community by teaching them baking skills and employing them in our facility.
Nutrition:

Through a longstanding relationship with Rama Foundation in the UK (www.rama.foundation.org.uk), which has sent teams of dietitians to assess the deficiencies of their students, Mother Miracle have gained an understanding of the specific nutritional needs within their school. They plan to continue to work with Rama Foundation dietitians to develop healthy, vitamin- and nutrient-packed foods to serve their children for breakfast and snacks. Once these children's nutritional needs are met, they will have a much better chance of reaching complete physical and cognitive development. This is absolutely essential to helping them take advantage of the free-of-cost accelerated education Mother Miracle provides so that they can grow into successful adults and be better contributing members of their families and community.

Sustainability & Growth:
With the industrial-grade equipment, they expect to produce surplus food which can be sold locally to restaurants and vendors. Not only do they hope to improve the nutrition of the community by offering healthy and delicious alternatives to the junk food that is widely available, but they also expect to generate a profit which can be reinvested in their children's health and education. If they are able to earn more than what is needed to sustain operations, one of their first goals will be to purchase milk to serve alongside the baked goods. This will help their students to reach their daily intake requirement for calcium. Mother Miracle has already begun to build relationships with local businesses which have expressed strong interest in purchasing their goods once production starts.
Empowerment:

The employees who run the bakery and kitchen will be selected from participants in Mother Miracle’s women's empowerment program. These ladies, many of whom are the relatives of their school children, are mostly uneducated and are treated as second-class members of their families. They struggle every day to meet the needs of their children, setting aside their personal needs for the good of the family. By employing these women in this bakery, Mother Miracle will offer them a chance to learn valuable new skills and earn salaries, which will raise their status in the family. As an added benefit, as these women learn how to produce nutrition-rich food, they will carry their knowledge back to the home and the community, where they will offer more nutritionally complete food to their entire families.

Challenges:

Mother Miracle has a proven track record of successful operations since 2002. In that time they have been able to grow from a tiny after school tutoring program to a family of four highly successful programs (Children's Education, Children's Health & Nutrition, Women's Empowerment, and Youth Vocational Training) serving approximately 300 individuals every day -- and they are still growing rapidly!
This baking and cooking centre, which serves both Children's Health & Nutrition and Women's Empowerment programs, is one of their most ambitious projects to date. They expect to face many hurdles as they work to develop recipes for products that will both feed their children and generate revenue through sales in the community. However, they are encouraged that their friends from Rama Foundation are behind these efforts and have offered to assist them in developing new products. They also anticipate a significant learning curve, both among their current staff and among the ladies they will hire to do the baking, as they learn to operate the new equipment and package goods for sale in the local market.
Training ladies from uneducated backgrounds to meet the necessary standards of quality and cleanliness can be a challenge. Yet they have worked with many such women to produce handicrafts and prepare Mother Miracle's children's daily lunch since the beginning of their Women's Empowerment program in 2008, and they are confident that more ladies can be trained to meet their high standards.
With the support of like-minded organizations and involvement of other friends worldwide, many of whom are culinary experts who have expressed interest in contributing to this program, they are confident that the new bakery and kitchen will soon become one of their most successful projects and an essential sustainability measure for all of Mother Miracle.'

Artika Datta, our Trustee Lead in Wellbeing, and a Specialist Dietitian at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, is now looking into making a valuable contribution to help improve the nutritional status and quality of life of terminally ill Cancer patients in collaboration with Ganga Prem Hospice.

To read more about Mother Miracle's work, visit: http://mothermiracle.com/.

To read more about Ganga Prem's work, visit: http://www.gangapremhospice.org/.

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