Food for the School
Program, successful in the region
By GEMMA TABAO, (PIA 8)
June 23, 2006
TACLOBAN CITY,
Leyte – The implementation of
the Food for the School Program in the
Eastern Visayas region for the school year 2005-2006 was considered
successful, according to the reports gathered from the Department of
Education Nutritionist, Renalda Salar.
According to Salar,
some 146 schools regionwide with a total of 5,326 pupils coming from
the pre-elementary and grade 1 levels have availed of the program.
These recipient
schools are from the municipalities of Macrohon and Limasawa in the
province of Southern Leyte, Tarangnan for Samar, Tunga and Mahaplag
for the Leyte province, Mercedes and Salcedo in Eastern Samar, and,
San Vicente and San Roque for the
province of
Northern Samar.
However, Salar added,
since hunger is being considered as an urgent problem which needs to
be addressed immediately, rice distribution was then extended until
summer of 2006. She likewise bared the good news that rice fortified
with iron were the ones distributed since February last year, to help
combat iron-deficiency malnutrition.
The Food for the
School Program of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is a school-based
package of comprehensive immediate interventions for families and
children who suffer hunger and malnutrition. The beneficiaries were
identified based on the 2005 Hunger Survey, of which Visayas was rated
13.3% and Region 8 categorized as vulnerable.
Coordinated by the
Department of Education, National Food Authority and the Department of
Social Welfare and Development, the program provided pre-elementary
and Grade 1 pupils an assistance of one kilo of rice for each day of
attendance in school.
Aside from food,
health services and other developmental support and family involvement
activities were also developed and provided to these identified
beneficiaries.
With the
implementation of the program, cases of absenteeism dropped, and an
increase in weights of some pupils were observed based on the latest
weight validation. The DepEd then hopes that its sustainability will
help attain an improved attendance and school performance of pupils,
and foremost, it will prevent further decline of the nutritional
status of young learners.
