Barangay cook-off marks Apalit’s Nutrition Month celebration

APALIT - A cooking competition among the 12 villages here was held on Wednesday morning at the municipal multi-purpose hall to mark the local government’s celebration of Nutrition Month.

Following the theme “Ugaliing Magtanim, Sapat na Nutrisyon Aanihin,” the village representatives were tasked to prepare healthy meals using ingredients harvested from and raised in the backyard.

“The challenge is they must prepare a healthy meal using ingredients that were gathered from their backyard farms. This can be vegetables or animals such as chicken, as long as it came from the backyard,” said Vice- Mayor Augusto Manlapaz.

He added that each barangay was only allowed to spend up to P200 for additional ingredients and must not exceed from it as the judging committee required an official costing list to ensure the compliance of all participants.

During the competition, participants prepared various dishes such as sinampalukang manok, pinakbet, and tofu sisig, among others.

In his speech, Manlapaz cited the importance of the cooking challenge in promoting healthy eating and living among Apaliteños, especially to children.

“It is important that we maintain healthy living because we are talking about our respective bodies. If we don’t take care of it, we are like leading ourselves to our early death,” he said.

Aside from promoting healthy living, Manlapaz also advocates backyard farming which, he said, is a good exercise and an alternative to lessen daily family expenses.

Awarded as champion in the cooking contest was Barangay Cansinala, Barangay Sucad as first runnerup, and Barangay San Vicente as second runner-up. Winners received P5,000, P3,000 and P2,000, respect i vel y.