BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Premier Wen Jiabao promised to provide nutritious food for students in the country's poverty-stricken central and western areas as part of the government's increased investment in rural education.

The premier made the promise in a speech delivered to more than 1,000 teachers at a middle school in north China's Hebei Province late last month. The full text of the speech was published in the People's Daily newspaper on Friday.

"The country will secure funds to create nutrition subsidies for primary and middle school students in poverty-stricken central and western areas, allowing these children to eat their fill and eat well," he said.

His promise was warmly welcomed by the public, making headlines on major news websites in China.

"Great news! Premier Wen has announced a plan to provide free lunches for students in poor areas. Progress day-by-day makes China a better country," Deng Fei, a reporter from Phoenix Weekly magazine, said on his microblog.

Despite China's rapid development, many students in remote areas are not well-fed because their homes are far away from schools. In addition, most of these schools do not even have dining halls.

China's impoverished population numbered 28.88 million people as of the end of 2010. A large proportion of these people live in China's central and western regions.

At the Xijie Primary School in central China's Henan Province, 15 percent of the school's 774 students are from poor families. These students do not eat properly and are noticeably shorter than their peers, according to school headmaster Pan Jianwei.

About 80 of the school's students live more than 2 kilometers away from the school, which means they have to walk more than 8 kilometers every day if they wish to return home for lunch.

Some children choose to bring their lunch to school. However, their meals are often made up of just buns and pickles.

"Some kids eat only two meals a day. They don't have eggs or meat to provide them with protein," said Zhao Hongzhi, a volunteer teacher from Beijing who is currently teaching at a school in the town of Xinghua in northwest China's Gansu Province.

Xinghua's residents largely depend on poultry farming and money sent from relatives working in larger cities to get by. Many parents have to sell their eggs to make money instead of feeding them to their children.

Zhao and five other volunteer teachers in the school launched a program to provide each of the students from grade one to grade three with a single egg every day. However, even this program has run into difficulties.

Bao Fengxia saves the egg that she receives from her teachers to give to her grandmother, who was left to take care of the girl after her parents left the town to make a living in the city.

"It would be great if the government could earmark a special fund to provide nutritious food for our children," said Zhao.

In his speech, Wen stated that educational authorities must address the challenges that have been created by China's fast-paced process of urbanization.

He said that it will be important to improve the quality of the country's boarding schools, as these schools accommodate millions of rural children who remain in their home villages while their parents seek work in the city.