Public pre-schoolers to get free rice

Children of poor parents studying in various barangay day-care centers and pre-school classes in depressed areas will soon receive rice subsidy from the government -at least one kilo of rice everyday.

Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes has already issued memorandum circular 2005-125 directing all provincial governors and mayors of different cities and municipalities to support the project.

But it was not clear yet as to when that the project would be implemented in Cebu, particularly in those depressed areas. It was also not immediately known how many barangays in Cebu are considered as depressed areas.

The project is aimed to address hunger and malnutrition among school children and their families in depressed barangays, Reyes said.

He explained that the Rice Through School Project is an expansion of the Food for School Project of the Department of Education that was implemented in selected schools in Manila, where pupils of grades 1 and 2 were provided with a kilo of rice per day for three months.

In a press statement, Reyes explained that in a recent National Nutrition Council Governing Board Cabinet level meeting, President Gloria Arroyo expressed concerned over the report that showed an increase this year of families suffering from severe hunger and instructed all concerned agencies to immediately act on it.

Reyes said the NNC was instructed to coordinate with a similar rice distribution project that will provide each day-care and Grade 1 pupil in selected depressed barangays with one kilo of rice per day.

A technical working group composed of representatives from DILG, Departments of Social Welfare and Development; Agriculture, Education; Budget and Management; Philippine Coconut Authority, National Economic Development Authority, was created to work on it.

According to Reyes, the Food for School Project is actually a complementary undertaking for the Bright Child program. It is a food subsidy package for young learners from the poor families.

The program will last until March 23, 2006 covering 107,500 in DepEd-supervised pre-schools and pupils of Grade 1 and day-care centers.

The local chief executives were also asked to assist the various agencies concerned to locate their families from the target areas as well as ensure that the project will reach the intended target areas and beneficiaries. - Rene U. Borromeo