CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City government’s supplemental feeding program for pre-schoolers received P10 million funding from the national government through the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Ester Concha, head of the Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS), said the money will be used to feed the 8,000 day care pupils in 154 centers in the city. The feeding program which will last for six months is scheduled to start on August 15.
Ronald Diola, chairman of the Cebu City Nutrition Council, said his office has already purchased several cooking equipment and utensils. Several sacks of rice were also distributed to the different day care centers.
Diola said they have turned over the food supply, cooking equipment and utensils to the officials of the Parents Teachers Associations (PTA). The PTA will assign personnel to prepare the food for the children.
According to Diola, the feeding program is designed to bring down the number of malnourish pupils.
“Kon malnourish ang bata dili kaayo sila makasabot sa leksyon mao nga ang uban dili na ganahan nga moeskwela (malnourished children could not easily understand their lessons resulting in dropout),” said Diola.
The records of the City Health Department’s Operation Timbang show that Barangay Ermita had the most number of underweight and malnourished children among the 80 barangays in Cebu City.
Other barangays in the top 10 are Sawang Calero, Sapangdaku, Pardo, Babag, Pung-ol Sibugay, Duljo-Fatima, Suba, Cogon Pardo, and Lusaran.
Aside from the pre-schoolers, the city also has a separate feeding program for the elementary school children but only for those found to be malnourished by the health officials based on the results of the Operation Timbang.
The expenses for the feeding program for the selected elementary school children are shouldered by the city. Based on the purchase requests made by the CCNC, the food includes meat, eggs, and vegetables. — (FREEMAN)