City dad wants study done on malnutrition of kids

Councilor Edgardo Labella called on the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the Food and Nutrition Research Institute to join hands in improving knowledge and resources to address "the dismal nutrition status of children."

The councilor, in his proposed resolution on the matter, said the joint efforts to bolster the government's supplemental feeding program should focus on the barangay level with the participation of non-government organizations.

Current nutrition and poverty statistics are already alarming, Labella said, so the two government agencies should move to raise the awareness of the public on the need for proper nutrition.

Labella cited a report from Global Call to Action Against Poverty group, which said that 3.97 million Filipino families are living on a measly P35.93 daily budget for food.

The National Statistics Coordination Board, in its 2004 figures, also said that the food threshold in the Philippines was at P23.93 daily, which was even 40.174 percent lower than the P40 daily food budget of a prisoner.

"The nightmarish statistical picture of poverty incidence in the country means that those who have less in life shoulder the pain of hunger," Labella said, emphasizing that the cravings for nutrition-rich foods are more felt by children.

A usual consequence is children of "financially-challenged" families are forced to leave school because undernourishment or mal-nourishment weaken them, he said.

Labella added that special attention should be given to the declining nutritional condition of children nationwide, including Cebu City. - Joeberth M. Ocao