Food Coaches

The National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 has a specific focus on facilitation by trained volunteers and leveraging external expertise in areas where schools lack such expertise (para 4.2, 4.4, 4.6). 

It is desired for all schools to have an attached certified dietician to provide the right advice and guidance on food and nutrition to the students. This is however not feasible in India. The country merely has 2 dieticians for 100,000 persons compared to 38 in Japan, 25 in the US, and 14 in the UK.

Therefore, the Alliance would create a pool of Food Coaches who could be attached to schools. For which it will by itself or in partnership put in place a training and certification system for food coaches. This pool of food coaches would be created from amongst the graduates in food, nutrition, and related areas. Even existing school teachers could be trained and certified as School Food Coaches.