Core Groups

Founder
Ranu Singh 

Ranu Singh is a Community Nutritionist and the Founder of Nutrition Punch, a platform dedicated to advancing community nutrition, public health awareness, and capacity building. She currently serves as a National Executive Committee Member of IAPEN India and is the Founder of the Community Nutrition Core Group – IAPEN India, contributing to the strengthening of community-focused nutrition initiatives at the national level. She previously served as the Secretary of the IAPEN India Lucknow Chapter, where she supported academic programming, professional engagement, and community outreach. She also serves as a Faculty for the Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) Program under the Nutrition & Diabetes India Core Group of IAPEN India.
Beyond IAPEN India, Ranu leads the Community Nutrition and Public Health Committee of the PDA and has earlier served as the State Head (Uttar Pradesh) for the Global Nutrition Partnership Program of IAPEN India–ASPEN, contributing to interdisciplinary collaboration and capacity building.
Ranu is frequently invited as a guest faculty at universities, colleges, and medical universities, delivering academic and capacity-building sessions for postgraduate students of Community Medicine, paramedical and allied health sciences students, and health professionals. She is actively involved in training government functionaries, including ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, District Programme Officers (DPOs), and Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs), and has organized Anganwadi-level training programs to support effective grassroots implementation of nutrition and public health interventions.
A committed community nutrition practitioner, Ranu works extensively with women of reproductive age in urban slums and rural communities, focusing on balanced diets, holistic lifestyle practices, sanitation, and hygiene to improve nutritional knowledge, health behaviours, and overall health outcomes. She is also deeply engaged in school and college-based nutrition education, promoting healthy eating habits, menstrual hygiene, and WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) practices.
As part of her school health initiatives, Ranu conducts regular nutrition education sessions and health awareness camps in government and private schools, with a strong emphasis on rural areas and primary schools. Her interventions are age-appropriate, interactive, and practical, ensuring key messages are easily understood. In primary schools, she emphasizes healthy eating habits, basic hygiene, balanced diets, and anemia prevention through simple demonstrations and participatory activities. For older children and adolescents, her sessions address nutrition during growth, micronutrient deficiencies, physical activity, and the role of WASH in disease prevention. These efforts aim to promote sustained behaviour change, improved nutritional awareness, and better health outcomes, particularly in underserved rural communities.
Her community and school-based interventions focus on the prevention and management of anemia, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and other lifestyle-related diseases through behaviour change communication, practical dietary modifications, and culturally appropriate community-based education. Key areas of work include interactive nutrition education, community-led WASH demonstrations, adolescent reproductive health and nutrition education, nutrition counselling for pregnant and lactating women, and the promotion of affordable, home-based dietary improvement strategies.
Academically, Ranu is a PhD Scholar with an MSc in Food and Nutrition. She is a Certified Diabetes Educator (IDF)and has completed specialized training in FODMAPs from Monash University, Australia. Her qualifications include multiple public health–focused postgraduate programs from the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) in Public Health and Nutrition and Management of Reproductive and Child Health. She also holds a Fellowship in Clinical Nutrition, is a Certified Maternal and Child Nutritionist, and has earned a Master Certificate in Programming for Infant and Young Child Feeding from UNICEF and Cornell University. Additionally, she has completed the MIYCAN program and specialized training in WASH, Humanitarian WASH Coordination, and Early Childhood Programming from UNICEF.
Further strengthening her expertise, Ranu has completed over 17 certificate courses from the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN), reflecting her strong commitment to continuous professional development and evidence-based practice.
She is a co-author of three books, including Diabetes Mellitus: Nutrition, Functional Foods & Nutraceuticals, Sustainable Nutrition: A Guide for Dietitians to Health and Planetary Well-being, and Media’s Grip: Unravelling Media’s Influence on Society. She has authored over 150 articles in leading newspapers and magazines and has presented research papers at international platforms, including ESPEN Congresses in Lyon, Milan, and Prague.
In recognition of her sustained contributions to public health nutrition, Ranu has been felicitated by the Hon’ble Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Smt. Anandiben Patel, at Raj Bhavan. Her professional honours include the National Quality Award for Excellence in Public Health Nutrition (ICNC 2023, Chennai) and the State Level Quality Award (ICNC 2025, Varanasi), both conferred by IAPEN India.
Her professional affiliations include Life Membership in IAPEN India, the Indian Dietetic Association (IDA), Society for Renal Nutrition and Metabolism (SRNM), Nutrition Society of India (NSI), Indian Public Health Association (IPHA), and the Poshan Dhara Association (PDA). She is also an Associate Member of the American Diabetes Association, American Society of Nutrition, and International Society of Hypertension, and a member of the South Asian Association of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and ESPEN.