Baguio City (CNN Philippines) — A total of 44,102 children in the entire Cordillera region were able to benefit from the fourth cycle implementation of the Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
The SFP is one of the government programs which aims to improve and sustain the nutritional status of target children beneficiaries by providing hot or regular meals for 120 feeding days.
DSWD Cordillera Regional Director Janet Armas said they are implementing the SFP in partnership with local government units (LGU).
As of the second quarter of 2015, Armas said they were already able to allocate over P70 million to local governments which serves as augmentation support for feeding programs for children in local government managed day care centers.
A total of P70,102,500 has been provided to the 77 LGUs in the region to cover expenses on viand and rice allocation of the children.
Under the program, a budget of P10 for the viand and a budget of P3 for the rice is allotted per child. The meals are prepared by the parents or guardians of the children beneficiaries using indigenous food or local produce available in the communities.
SFP focal person Edeline Genove said beneficiaries are able to increase their knowledge in the proper preparation and selection of food for their children, with the help of parents.
“Through this, we are hoping that the parents are able to adopt this in their homes and make sure that their children get the sufficient nutrients to make them healthy,” Genove said.
As of August 3, the SFP was able to monitor 41,447 children with normal weight, 1,443 underweight and 206 overweight children.
According to Nutritionist Dietitian Alitha Directo, changes with the children’s weights after six months of feeding has been reported by implementers.
For the municipality of Bangued in Abra, for example, she said they were able to monitor 169 underweight children, but after the feeding they are able to record only 115.
Under the SFP, meals provided for the children are ensured to satisfy 1/3 of the recommended energy and nutrient intake (RENI).
“For 2015, we will be implementing the 5th cycle of SFP and we are hoping to sustain the impact of the program with the help of our stakeholders like the LGUs, day care workers, and the parents,” Armas added.
For the fifth cycle, SFP has allocated more than P68 million to cover the target of 43,787 children in 2,020 child development centers in the region.
Aside from the regular feeding, beneficiaries are also taught proper hand washing while local food handlers are taught how to prepare healthy meals by sourcing out fresh vegetables and ingredients in school and daycare center gardens.
