Food firm spearheads nutrition program among poor children

Meat processing firm CDO-Foodsphere Inc. has taken the initiative to ease the malnutrition problem in the country by launching a supplemental feeding program for poor and underweight children in Valenzuela City.

The "Gabay Buhay" feeding program, under the watch of Odyssey Foundation Inc., has helped bring down the number of malnourished children in three sites in Barangay Paso, Valenzuela City since it was started in June this year, according to social worker Eleanor Erguiza.

Launched on June 4, 2004, Odyssey is a non-stock, non-profit organization that serves as the corporate social responsibility arm of CDO. It seeks to promote nourishment of children,child development, research and advocacy.

"At present, our feeding program covers 116 malnourished children with ages three to six years in Paso de Blas. Under the targeted 16-week program, supplemental feeding is conducted four times a week or from Tuesday to Friday. We also give them vitamins, thanks to United Laboratories, which is one of our donors," Erguiza said.

On May 20, the Gabay Buhay team identified 116 children with weight below the normal level for their age in Sitio Kanluran, Sitio Sapa and Sitio Valdez. In particular, the beneficiaries included 23 children suffering from severe malnutrition and 93 children with mild malnutrition.

Erguiza noted that after ten weeks of supplemental feeding, a weight evaluation conducted among the beneficiaries on August 10, showed that none of the children was suffering from severe malnutrition anymore.

At the same time, the evaluation showed that the weights of 65 children were restored to the normal level. Only 33 children were found to be suffering from mild malnutrition, although their weights are expected to greatly improve toward the end of the supplemental feeding program this month. The rest of the children were still being prepared for weighing.

"This only shows that we are making a lot of progress as a foundation," Erguiza said. "This inspires us to expand the area coverage of supplemental feeding program in the future, as we feel that it is the right thing to do to curb the serious problem of malnutrition in the country."

She said that the problem is so severe that three of every 10 preschool children in the Philippines are considered underweight because their families could not provide adequate food for them. According to the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), some 3.7 million Filipino preschool children, with ages 0 to 5 years, were underweight as of 2001. Children become underweight when they suffer from acute or severe malnutrition.

With an accreditation from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Odyssey receives grants, gifts, legacies, donations and financial aids to assists its operations focused on nurturing the health of underweight children.