Jacqueline Fernandez & Kunal Kapur join Food Revolution Day 2016

Chef Jamie Oliver, Bollywood star Jacqueline Fernandez and MasterChef India judge, Kunal Kapur, urged people to sign up to the Food Revolution Day 2016 campaign. Jamie and his army of revolutionaries will be putting pressure on governments at the World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva on 23rd May 2016 to tackle the global child nutrition crisis. In a move that Jamie Oliver has called a “game-changer”, he and numerous other well-known personalities will take to Facebook Live on 20th May 2016 for a 7-hour cooking marathon.  In India the campaign’s Global Champions – Bollywood Superstar- Jacqueline Fernandez and Judge and Host of Masterchef India – were the hosts of the live event on Facebook which took place in Pali Village Café, Mumbai.

The aim is to encourage people to join them in a full-scale, global Food Revolution – a major part of which will be giving people power to lobby their own governments to fight diet-related disease.

Currently 41 million children under five are overweight while another 159 million are too undernourished to grow properly: we are in the middle of a global health crisis. Food Revolution Day, now in its 5th year, aims to provoke discussion and inspire positive, meaningful change in the way we access, consume and understand food. Starting in kitchens at home and moving up to the highest levels of business and government, Jamie believes people must work together to empower children with the nutritional knowledge and resources they need to live healthier, happier lives.

Jamie Oliver said, “The last 15 years have been tough at times. There were a few of us out there asking questions, wanting answers and making a lot of noise but it often felt like no one was listening. But recently we’ve started making headway, governments are beginning to change policies. This Food Revolution Day we’re going to give governments that extra little nudge by running the longest-ever Facebook Live campaign, getting millions of people involved from all around the globe. The World is crying out for action and there has never been a better time to make changes to save millions of lives.”

Jacqueline Fernandez added, “It’s great to be involved in the Food Revolution this year. It’s particularly important to us here in India because we’re in the middle of a child nutrition crisis – as millions of kids suffer from being severely under-nourished, whilst last year over a quarter of Indian children between the ages of 13 and 18 were classed as obese*. If we’re going to combat the nutrition crisis we have to do it as one.”

Chef Kunal Kapur highlighted the fact that “as a father myself, I understand the vital importance of good nutrition and a balanced diet to aid a child’s physical and mental development. I jumped at the chance to be involved in this worthwhile and unique initiative. It will be great to bounce off some of my cooking skills with Jacqueline and to demonstrate just how easy it is to cook nutritious meals.”

Supporting the Food Revolution in India, The AkshayaPatra Foundation, the world’s largest free midday meal programme, will serve it’s 2 billionth meal in a school in the Guwahati, Assam.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation

Started in 2000 at a kitchen in Bengaluru, The AkshayaPatra Foundation serves nutritious food to over 1.5 million children every school day, in 11,000 schools across 10 states in India. With 23 kitchens all over India that provide nutritious, vegetarian India staple food like daal (lentils), rice and delicious vegetable preparations, The Foundation believes that no child should be deprived of education because of hunger; for many children in India their daily midday meal in school is the only proper, nutritious food they receive. Their mission is to feed 5 million children by 2020.

The partnership with Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution is led by Dipika Khaitan, Executive Director, AkshayaPatra UK. In India, the government is trying to reduce the number of malnourished children by launching initiatives like the ‘Infant and Young Child Feelings Counselling Centre’ in certain states. At the same time, it is beginning to tackle the obesity crisis by raising awareness of the negative impact that poor dietary and lifestyle choices can have on health, with programmes like the ‘National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases & Stroke’.

However, still more must be done.

That’s why Jamie together with film actress Jacqueline Fernandez, host and judge of MasterChef Kunal Kapur and partners such as The Akshaya Patra UK Foundation are calling for people in India to sign up and join the Food Revolution and ask their government to:

• Make a new SMART commitment this year to tackle undernutrition
• Help to make 2016 a breakthrough year on child nutrition
• Ensure Indian leadership is present at the World Health Assembly meeting on 23rd May 2016, at the Nutrition for Growth Summit in Rio at the time of the Olympics, and at the UN General Assembly in September 2016.

The World Health Assembly is the annual meeting of all the world’s health ministers in Geneva. This is a great opportunity for India to tell the world what it will do to tackle child obesity and child undernutrition. Jamie Oliver will also be there to encourage ministers to take strong action. Jamie and thousands of others across the globe are asking for people to call on their governments to commit to action on nutrition and sign up to the Food Revolution. Become a revolutionary here www.jamiesfoodrevolution.org

As part of Food Revolution Day, Jamie will also be taking an International Omelette Challenge global to get people, young and old, experiencing first-hand how super-quick, easy and delicious healthy grub can be wherever you are, and encourage more noise on social media for the Food Revolution.

You can see Chef Kunal Kapur and Jacqueline Fernandez cooking live on Facebook at 3.30pm IST on Friday 20th May from Pali Village Cafe.

*National statistics announced by India’s Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda in March 2016