‘Milkybun’ for Nueva Ecija kids

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, will implement a feeding program for children in the province through the recently inaugurated Milkybun Production Center.

Milkybun is an enhanced version of nutribun, a nutritious bread first used in feeding programs for elementary school children in the 1970s. Each milkybun is equivalent to the nutrition one will get from a glass of milk.

DAR Secretary John Castriciones said the deal was implemented under the Enhanced Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty Program (EPAHPP) spearheaded by Cabinet Secretary and committee chair Karlo Nograles.

EPAHPP is a government initiative to address hunger and poverty through the synergy and convergence of essential services of government agencies.

Castriciones said the feeding program manifests farmers’ important role in food supply, especially amid the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

“A country cannot survive without the farmers and it is just appropriate that we give them our all-out support in helping them build the nation,” Castriciones said.

PCC Executive Director Arnel del Barrio said that aside from providing children with nutritious food, the project aims to increase the yield of carabao’s milk and improve farmers’ income.

“I believe that the DAR would help us make this project successful. This partnership is the beginning of milkybun entering the mainstream," he said. "It will not only penetrate the entire Central Luzon Region but the whole country as well.”

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DOST DOST-Food and Nutrition Research Institute has reformulated the enhanced nutribun, consisting of flour, squash puree, sugar, skim milk, shortening, salt, bread improver and yeast, and formulated with micro-nutrients like iron and vitamin A.