NUTRITION
Total Health uses its sprawling campus to grow a diverse variety of vegetables and fruits. The seeds and saplings from here and the polyhouse are distributed to residents to encourage self reliance. For those vulnerable, who can’t afford to buy or grow their own food, we prepare meals at our kitchen and take them to community spaces.
NUTRITION SUPPLEMENTATION CENTRES
FOR MOTHERS AND BABIES
Through the antenatal and postnatal nutrition programme, we hope to bring down the maternal and infant mortality rate by preventing anaemia and malnutrition among mothers. This also helps prevent congenital disabilities in children. Six nutrition centres in Chittoor offer supplementary food to almost 500 pregnant and lactating mothers, and their children. The benefits from this intervention are improved maternal health, increased birth weight of the child, and adequate breastfeeding for the child.
For senior citizens
The main objective of the geriatric nutrition centres is to improve the quality of life of seniors who are unable to support themselves and have no family support. They are offered hot meals six days a week. Consistent access to nutrition helps tackle physiological changes that occur with age, so disease and disability are prevented. Not only this, when the elderly come together for their meal, they experience a sense of community and a feeling of being cared for by those who serve them from the village.
KITCHEN GARDEN
Total Health in its Aragonda campus supports a diverse range of food giving plants: papayas, greens, pumpkins, an indigenous variety of corn and purple lady’s finger. The aim is to enhance food and nutrition security, and to propagate local produce. As a part of the AYUSH programme expansion, plans are being put in place for the plantation of herbal gardens. In Amrabad, seeds are distributed to the community for home kitchen gardens, to increase food diversity.
POLYHOUSE FARMING
Polyhouse farming is slowly gaining popularity in India as it has a great scope of fetching larger profits for the farming community without undue impact from the vagaries of nature. However, most farmers are not aware of polyhouse technology and of the subsidies being provided by the government to promote this technology. A polyhouse with drip irrigation was initiated on a pilot basis on one acre of land, in 2017, in Aragonda.