Healthier Street Food, Healthier India: A Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action

Arogya World to Educate 10,000 Street Food Vendors On Healthy Cooking

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, September 22, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Today, at the Clinton Global Initiative 2026 Annual Meeting, Arogya World committed to training 10,000 street food vendors across India to adopt healthier food preparation practices that help prevent diet-related Noncommunicable diseases, particularly diabetes and hypertension. Through this initiative, vendors will be trained to reduce excess salt, avoid the repeated use of cooking oil, promote healthier cooking methods, and encourage balanced meals for consumers.

“We want to change the way India eats,” said Dr Nalini Saligram, Founder & CEO of Arogya World. “Millions of Indians eat food from corner food carts, before work, after school, and between shifts. We think it is therefore smart to educate street food vendors on healthier cooking, in addition to educating consumers, as part of our comprehensive nationwide diabetes prevention strategy.”

The program will be implemented through a scalable partnership model over the next two years. In collaboration with the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), vendors from major cities, including Mumbai, Bengaluru, and other urban centers, will be mobilized to participate in structured training sessions. Arogya World and NASVI will collaboratively deliver practical, culturally appropriate training using simple, visual educational materials suitable for vendors with diverse literacy levels. Pre- and post-training assessments will measure improvements in knowledge and practices, and standardized training resources will enable replication across multiple locations.

“We are proud to partner with Arogya World on this important public health initiative and will facilitate community engagement and cascade the needed training. We can together empower our community of marginalized workers to improve their own health as well as that of the customers they cook for,“ said Arbind Singh, National Coordinator, NASVI.

Each street food vendor serves 80-100 consumers every day, thus street food vendors can influence the eating habits and shape food choices at scale.

Beyond Type 1 will provide funding support to Arogya World, to help program implementation across India.

“We’re pleased to join this coalition of organizations committed to improving global health,” said Kristian Hurley, Executive Vice President, Social Impact and Global Advocacy at Beyond Type 1. “Improving health requires solutions that are informed by the people they’re designed to serve. We’re excited to bring Beyond Type 1’s deep connection to the diabetes community, trusted educational resources and global reach to this initiative, helping shape solutions that can reach more people and make a meaningful difference in their lives.”

Together, these partners combine technical expertise, community reach, and implementation capacity to create healthier street food environments and improve the diets of millions.

This program builds on a successful pilot led by Arogya World, in 2024, which showed 80–85% retention of health messages, healthier cooking practices including reductions in oil and salt usage, high willingness among vendors to adopt healthier practices without affecting sales, and positive consumer acceptance of healthier options. See.

India’s street food ecosystem is deeply embedded in the country’s urban and semi-urban food culture. The sector comprises an estimated 10 million vendors, among India’s most marginalized urban workers. With increasing time constraints and changing lifestyles, eating outside the home has become routine, and Indians consume outside food at least six times a month on average (National Restaurant Association of India, 2019).

India is witnessing a sharp rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which account for ~63% of deaths (WHO, 2025). Diabetes affects 101 million people and 136 million have pre-diabetes (ICMR-INDIAB, 2023). Diets high in salt, unhealthy fats, and refined ingredients are key contributors to this burden (WHO, 2018).

Street food vendors sit at the center of this challenge. India has made important progress in food safety, particularly in hygiene certification. However, nutrition-sensitive interventions within the informal food sector remain limited, creating a clear gap and opportunity for systemic change. 98% of vendors have never received formal training on reducing high salt usage or the dangers of re-using oil for frying (Arogya World, 2024 pilot study). This is the gap Arogya World will fill with its innovative approach and the scale of this project.

About Arogya World

Arogya World (www.arogyaworld.org) is a US-based 501(C)(3) organization addressing the massive diabetes crisis through prevention. Set up by an Ashoka Fellow, this public-health nonprofit is strengthening health systems and shifting health behaviors, influencing individuals and institutions. Among its many recognitions, Arogya World is especially proud of the 2022 United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on NCDs and WHO Special Programme on Primary Health Care Award.

Arogya helps adolescents and adults eat healthier, be physically active, and adopt health-seeking behaviors that are known to prevent diabetes and related complications. Working with community-based partners, Arogya World delivers localized, science-based programs to people where they live, learn and work (a doorstep health model). So far, the organization has reached over 29.5 million people in India in the last 15 years, with its proven behavior-change programs.

Arogya World has previously made and fulfilled multiple Clinton Global Initiative Commitments. For this year’s Commitment, Arogya World will serve as the project lead, contributing its expertise in nutrition, behavior change communication, program design and delivery, monitoring and evaluation, and large-scale health promotion.

About the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)

Founded by President Bill Clinton in 2005, the Clinton Global Initiative is a community of doers representing a broad cross section of society and dedicated to the idea that we can accomplish more together than we can apart. Through CGI’s unique model, more than 13,000 organizations have launched more than 4,300 Commitments to Action — new, specific, and measurable projects and programs – that are making a difference in the lives of more than 500 million people in 180 countries.

Media Contact: Pooja Lapasia
pooja@arogyaworld.org

Pooja Lapasia
Arogya World
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