In full swing
IHAVE always believed that a nourished body is crucial for an active mind. In other words, if a child goes to school hungry, he/ she is unable to learn at his/her fullest potential. This is the why, when I conceptualized MovEd back in 2012, I made sure that one of its flagship programs was focused on incorporating and executing feeding programs. More specifically, in providing in-class feeding to our students. This is also a way to get their parents more involved and interactive with our program. Amongst themselves in every community, through our guidance, they have figured out a method to rotate in terms of tasks, and are the ones in-charge of cooking the meals of the children and cleaning the classrooms at the end of every school day. While the in-class feeding has been rolled out in most of our NCR sites since 2013, it was a bit more challenging to figure out the logistics to make it happen in Bicol, where the majority of our learning labs in fact are situated. While we’ve been blessed with the most generous and supportive partners – the R.S. Po Foundation of Century Canning Corporation – to get the goods going on the ground was another story. But I guess we gained the support of the heavens as well, and one thing led to the next – finally, our partners found a way to transport the goods and our parents in Bicol were more than happy to get things going.
Last August 17, we officially launched the partnership in Bicol via a cook-off, starring the nanays. The rules were fairly simple: A Century product (in this case tuna) provided to them had to be cooked with a Bicolano twist. And boy, did the nanays surprise us with their creative and innovative dishes. While the team who presented their version of pinangat bagged the grand prize, all of them got to go home with gift packs lovingly given by the RS Po Foundation. What warmed our hearts even more was having our Vice President, Leni Robredo, drop by the event to join in the festivities. Unknown to many, it was during her term as representative of the Third District of Camarines Sur that MovEd really had the chance to grow in serving more communities. She is the reason we are privileged to have such a strong presence in Bicol, and she has been our guiding light in terms of coaching us on how to grow effectively and progressively. Her presence during the event was a much needed re-assurance to the team and to the communities we serve that she still very much believes in our cause and makes the time to check up on our developments. It is with a grateful heart that we would like to express our sincerest gratitude to a woman who has consistently made the effort to be a part of our milestones. And again, we are humbled that she chose to be present at the launch of a major one. After all, she is a big part of MovEd’s story.
To make leaps and bounds, we create collaborations and forge partnerships. After all, it is a very effective way to grow because we must never spread ourselves out too thinly or assume that we are an expert in all things. While the truth is that some of them yield more fruits and are more successful than others, it is quite a blessing to find partners who support your vision unquestionably. It is even more rare to forge a partnership so cohesive and in-sync that ripples of change happen almost instantly and there is reciprocity in the growth of both involved. This is the blessing we have in the R.S. Po Foundation – who like us, believe that children should never go hungry. And with the generous and extremely driven team behind it, it is with no doubt that slowly, but surely, with the many more partnerships they form, that mission of theirs will be fulfilled. And as for MovEd, and in terms of our feeding program, we are finally in full swing!