"It is recommended to deal with the nutrition issues of children aged 3-5 at their crucial stage of the growth as a national strategy, increasing efforts to improve relevant policies and mobilize all forces and resources."

The "Proposal to Improve the National Children's Nutrition Strategy and Cover the Key Stages of Children's Growth from 3 to 5 Years Old" was submitted by Zhu Yongxin, a member of the 13th National Committee of CPPCC and Vice President of the Central Democratic Party, when the First Session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) opened on March 3 in Beijing.

According to the proposal, social forces should be encouraged to carry out nutritional support and intervention in a variety of innovative ways; non-profit institutions, research institutions, and enterprises can be involved to solve children's nutrition problem by taking proper approaches based on real situations.

Children's nutritional status is not optimistic.

The results of monitoring of nutrition and health of Chinese residents from 2010-2013 showed the rate of growth retardation and underweight among rural children aged 0-5 years old was 11.3 percent and 3.2 percent respectively, while those in poor rural areas were as high as 19.0 percent and 5.1 percent respectively.

In addition, the problem of iron-deficiency anemia among children in urban and rural areas can also not be underestimated. The prevalence of anemia in children is also high, so is micronutrient deficiency.

Over past few years, China has carried out many children nutrition improvement projects, including providing nutritious food subsidy for impoverished rural children aged 6-12 years old, and offering nutrition packages for kids aged 6-24 months old and feeding knowledge support in poor areas.

Charity projects help children aged 3 to 5 to fight for childhood malnutrition.

China Child and Teenagers’ Fund (CCTF) launched the “Power of 5 – Preschool Children’s Nutrition Improvement Project” in 2015, together with Amway Charity Foundation and China Development Research Foundation, to help three-to-five-year-old children living in poor area of China gain access to the nutrition they need during their critical period of growth. It will provide nutrition supplements for children and physical examination support at kindergartens.

The project has been implemented in China’s provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Shanxi, and Hunan and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. It provided children with nutrition chewable tablets, helping them to supplement 17 kinds of essential vitamins and minerals.

As of September 2017, the project has put more than 20 million RMB and has benefited over 17,000 children. It has brought about remarkable children nutrition improvement, lowering the rate of children growth retardation to 8.1 percent from 17.6 percent and that of anemia to 29 percent from 37.6 percent.