Over 100T children benefit DSWD-7’s feeding program

CEBU, Philippines — Some 126,267 children enrolled in various children development centers (CDC) in Central Visayas are being served by the Department of Social Welfare and Development-7 in partnership with the local government units in 2019.

In a statement, DSWD-7 said it currently implements the Cycle 9 of Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP).

“The government provides food as additional to the regular meals to target children in the community through the SFP of the DSWD,” the statement reads.

The program aims to improve and sustain the nutritional status of the children in various LGU-managed Day Care Centers/Supervised Neighborhood Play (SNP) areas and communities.

The program’s food supplementation is in the form of hot meals served during snack/meal time to children five days in a week for 120 days in addition to their regular meals.

SFP served children are weighed at the onset of the feeding and 60 days thereafter and after the completion of 120 feeding days to determine improvement and sustenance in their nutritional status.

Children aged 2 to 4 under the SNP group, 3 to 4 in child development centers and 5 years old who are not enrolled in the Department of Education pre-school but are in day care centers are the target beneficiaries of the program.

In the cycle 9 implementation of SFP in Region-7, a total of P210,702,600 has been allocated for the 3,497 CDC and SNP groups in Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental, and Siquijor.

Apart from the provision of supplemental food, complementary activities like deworming, micronutrient supplementation, nutrition education, and growth monitoring are also done to fully maximize the impact of the SFP.

For its 9th cycle, series of orientation on the guidelines of operation of the SFP to various LGUs in the four provinces of the region were conducted early this year to ensure continued proper implementation of the program to various CDCs and SNPs.

From cycle 1 to cycle 9 implementation, the DSWD-7’s SFP has already served a total of 1,212,944 children in Central Visayas.

The SFP is also part of the department’s contribution to the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) program of the government. (FREEMAN)