DepEd’s health, nutrition programs
John Joseph L. Puno
JUST recently, our regional Department of Education office launched health and nutrition programs for public kindergarten and elementary learners in Central Luzon in line with its prevention measures against COVID-19.
These programs launched through DepEd’s Health and Nutrition Unit are the SchoolBased Feeding Program (SBFP) and the Distribution of Learners’ Hygiene Kits for all enrolled elementary students for School Year 2020-2021.
According to DepEd Region III, the School Health and Nutrition Program continuously advocates healthy habits to learners even at the confines of their homes.
The SBFP and Distribution of Learners’ Hygiene Kits is one step towards good health producing better learning, the DepEd-3 said.
The SBFP will cover targeted public kindergarten students as well as Grades 1 to 6 students who were deemed to be under “wasted” and “severely wasted” categories based on last year’s health records. It shall provide beneficiaries with nutritious food products—through rationing—for at least 60 feeding days, and fresh or sterilized milk for 50 feeding days.
The feeding program has been rolled out in implementing public elementary schools on the last week of November.
The nutritious food products being distributed to the learners are based on a localized one-month cycle menu and a regional food supply map developed by the Regional SBFP Focal Person to ensure that these are healthy and nutritious for the target beneficiaries.
On the other hand, the 20 DepEd Schools Division Offices in the region have partnered with the Philippine Carabao Center and National Dairy Authority for the supply of fresh milk for the Milk Feeding Component.
Based on the SBFP implementing guidelines, schools shall strategize schemes to deliver the nutritious food products and milk packs to the beneficiaries in their homes. Parents may pick up the nutritious food products and milk packs on designated days and time or school personnel may opt to distribute them using school vehicles. School heads may also coordinate with partners such as barangay officials or non-government organizations (NGOs) to distribute the milk packs to the homes of the beneficiaries.
Meanwhile, 1,285,122 public kindergarten and elementary learners in Central Luzon will receive hygiene kits which seek to ensure the health of the Kinder to Grade 6 students enrolled this School Year 2020-2021. The said hygiene kits consist of toothbrush, toothpaste, and soap.
The hygiene kits, which are a household-level ORAL and W ASH intervention, are recommended for use during this pandemic responses and other oral health problems that our learners are experiencing.
The proper oral health care and good health practices will improve their learning habits as they maintain their personal health in good condition. The distribution of these hygiene kits in all divisions is one of the most important measures that can be used to prevent infection with the COVID-19 virus, the DepEd-3 said.
The author is Teacher
--oOo-
III at Porac Elementary School