Feeding program fights malnutrition in San Remigio

More than 5,000 malnourished children in San Remigio town will benefit from a four-month feeding program called "Kusina sa Kahimsug ug Pag-amuma" (KKP) with the goal of achieving zero underweight, wasted, and severely wasted pupils in the town's public schools.

A total of 5,189 public school pupils will be given lunch from Mondays through Fridays for 120 days beginning yesterday as the first set of beneficiaries of the KKP's pilot run.

Of that number, 1,442 are day-care pupils, 303 are supervised neighborhood playgroup (SNP) children; 865 are wasted and severely wasted kindergarten to grade 6 pupils. 2,579 kindergarten to grade 1 students will also be included in the universal feeding program.

However, out-of-school children will not be included since the program is schoolbased.

The budget for the entire run of the project is P9.6 million.

The program is a project partnership of GawadKalinga, Cebu Provincial Government, Municipality of San Remigio, Department of Education(DepEd) and Department of Social Welfare and Development(DSWD).

The food will be prepared by volunteers, parents, and teachers in the centralized kitchens built by the provincial government in Central School District - I and II.

A specially designed 30day food menu was created by nutrition experts from Ateneo de Manila to ensure that the student will not grow weary of the same servings. The main ingredients consist of vegetables, fish, and meat.

Gawad Kalinga Cebu Head Antonio Florendo said that food menus will be repeated only after a 30-day cycle.

Also part of the program's expected results is the improved class attendance and academic performance of the beneficiaries.

Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III said that this is just one of the efforts of both the government and the civil society agencies to end hunger.

The feeding program is supplemented by nutrition awareness campaigns targeted for parents so they'll have an idea of what indigenous or local ingredients they can use to prepare healthy meals, according to DSWD-7 Focal Person Melinda Cañares.

Local farmer organizations and cooperatives are also expected to profit from the program. According to San Remigio Mayor Mariano Martinez, the organizers will get their supplies from local farmers and fishermen.

Provincial Administrator Mark Tolentino explained that the concept was born after the End Hunger Summit organized by Gawad Kalinga earlier this year.

He added that the program was created to help address the offshoot problems faced by Province due to its ‘high poverty index rating'.

Florendo said San Remigio was chosen as the pilot site as it was the local government unit that showed persistent interest in the program.

Cebu Investment and Promotions Officer Roy Soledad said that the results of this project will be used as basis for the program to be replicated in other towns.

Mayor Martinez said this is also one way to encourage the parents to send their children to school.

The project stakeholders added that this program is sustainable since it will be streamlined and will have a yearly allocation from the government.