Zhang Yongming, head teacher of Gejia Primary School in Gejiu, a city of Yunnan province in Southwest China, shows kitchen facilities at school. [Zhang Chunyan/chinadaily.com.cn]

Zhang Yong, head of Gejiu Education Bureau, said, "Among all the rural primary schools and middle schools in Gejiu, 22 schools have set up their own canteens to provide nutritional meals and another 136 schools receive meals served by food companies."

"All the companies are selected strictly through open tender," said Zhang Qun, head of student assistance management office in Gejiu Education Bureau.

Gejia Primary School is one of the institutions which provide nutritional meals by the canteens. To ensure openness of the progress, Zhang Yongming said that he releases the list of income and expenses of nutrition meal every month at school and also the list of every child who receives the food.

According to Zhang Yong, the improvement in students' spirit and physical fitness is obvious now. "The pass rate of students' physical health tests reached 94.79 percent in 2015 in Gejiu's rural schools, up from 92.65 percent in 2014," he said, adding that "the malnutrition rate has reduced to 16.23 percent in 2015, down from 26.17 percent in 2011."

What's more, the students' academic performance and attendance rate both increased alongside their nutrition, Zhang Yong said, adding that the dropout rates of students have reduced both in rural primary and middle schools in Gejiu in 2015.

The nutrition meal program aims to improve the nutritional wellbeing of young children in poor areas, also cultivate active, happy and healthy lifestyles for rural students. It will also serve as a practical model to teach nutrition education in rural areas.

By June 2015, the central and local governments had put 144.3 billion yuan into covering 32.1 million students in a third of the counties across the country.