BEIJING, Jan. 30  -- Chinese government has invested 47.2 billion yuan (about 7.7 billion U.S. dollars) in its rural nutrition program since 2011, and 32.2 million children have reaped the benefits, the Ministry of Education said on Friday.

The program was launched to address malnutrition in rural areas, when it began to allocate three yuan a day to students to supplement their diets with nutritious meals. This was increased to four yuan in November 2014.

The money has been distributed to 134,279 rural schools in 30 out of the Chinese mainland's 31 provincial regions.

In addition, another 30 billion yuan has been funneled in to building canteens.

The ministry said that the students' academic performance increased alongside their nutrition, said Deputy Education Minister Lu Xin.

Lu said the ministry would push legislation on the program to make it a regular project.