Over the past eight years, around 9.47 million children in poverty-affected areas have largely benefited from China’s nutrition improvement program.

Notably, reducing hunger levels as well as malnutrition and improving food security have come to the forefront of the central government’s political agenda.

The scheme covered all the country’s 832 poor counties by 2019, a significant rise from 100 in 2012 when the program was unveiled, said He Jinguo, an official with the National Health Commission.

The nutritional status of children in poor areas has been improved with the help of the program, said the official.

It must be mentioned here that free nutrition packages are provided to infants aged 6 to 24 months in contiguous areas of extreme poverty under the program.