Pasig City okays P9.29-million to feed malnourished children

Pasig City has released P9.29 million to provide free meals and other dietary food supplements for three months to some 9,507 malnourished school children in its 27 public elementary schools. The program dubbed as "Tsibug ni Baby, Pangkabuhayan ni Mommy" will separately be launched today by Pasig Mayor Vicente Eusebio and City officials in public elementary schools in Brgys. Buting, San Joaquin and Kalawaan.

The program hopes to address the problems on malnutrition of students in public elementary schools and the lack of livelihood opportunities for parents of indigent pupils.

Councilor Robert "Bobby" Eusebio, chairman of the Committee on Health and Sanitation said he lobbied hard for the release of the said allocation because he saw the urgent need to stem the rising tide of malnourished schoolchildren in Pasig City.

"We found out that a number of students usually go to school without eating breakfast, thus affecting their attentiveness and alertness in the classrooms," said the councilor.

The councilor said that the problem on malnutrition was traced to poverty or due to the unhealthy eating habits of school children. "The parents simply could not afford to provide their children with adequate food," said Councilor Eusebio.

He said, children nowadays also prefer junk food over vegetables which could be blamed on the lack of guidance and proper motivation on the part of teachers and parents. "Eating healthy is not necessarily expensive," the young Eusebio hinted.

Nutritionist Marisa Almario of the City Health Office clarified that the program is only a supplementary dietary project meant to augment and not to usurp the mantle of parents to care for their children.

Almario said it is the parents who have the responsibility to not only provide food but more importantly teach their children healthy eating habits. "The program aims to push the children in the right direction until they recover. We will feed them until they regain their ideal or normal weight," said Almario, adding that City Hall officials will closely monitor chronically undernourished recipients.

The school feeding program is now on its second year of implementation.

The city government also has tapped the services of 72 mothers, who underwent child nutrition and food preparation training conducted by the Pasig Livelihood Foundation, to provide catering services for the schoolchildren.

And to provide start-up capital for their catering services, the Department of Social Welfare and Development released loans totaling P250,000 for the 72 mothers under its "Puhunang Bigay Buhay" fund. — Non Alquitran