EDITORIAL - Another food problem

Apart from difficulties with distance learning, underprivileged school children who were forced by the pandemic to attend classes remotely faced another problem: the loss of the School-Based Feeding Program.

The SBFP covers “severely wasted” and “wasted” pupils from kindergarten to sixth grade. Under this program, undernourished students receive free milk, hot meals and other nutritious food products. At the end of 120 feeding days, the program aims to improve the nutritional status of beneficiaries by at least 70 percent.

Free food in school also aims to encourage more enrollment especially among the poor and increase classroom attendance by 85 to 100 percent. The program is administered by the Bureau of Learner Support Services – School Health Division of the Department of Education. Last year, however, the DepEd bureau lost half of its budget for the feeding program, from the previous P6 billion allocation to just P3.3 billion.

This is because the regular allocation was given to the local government units, in line with the start of the implementation of the Supreme Court’s Mandanas ruling, which gave LGUs a bigger share in national revenues. With the bigger allocation, the national government is in turn devolving more functions to LGUs.

Concerns have been raised on whether local governments can take up the slack in the school feeding program, especially with soaring food prices accounting for the biggest chunk of the 14-year-high inflation rate. The United States Department of Agriculture, for one, suggested in a recent report that overall funding must be increased and the feeding program itself must be expanded. The USDA noted that malnutrition and undernourishment continue to be prevalent among Filipino school children.

The 2019 Nutritional Assessment in the Enhanced Basic Education Information System showed that 13.2 percent of some 12.7 million Filipino school children met the standards for being stunted or wasted. Health experts have warned that malnourishment and undernourishment stunt not only physical but also mental development in children, impairing lifelong learning.

The prevalence of stunting not only impairs a person’s chances of advancement in life but also affects national competitiveness. A country’s human resources are its most precious, and must therefore be given optimum care. This starts from childhood, with the most basic need: food. The school feeding program needs urgent attention and enhancement.