DSWD allots P204.6M for feeding program in Central Visayas

Friday 13th of July 2012

CEBU CITY, July 13 (PIA) -- The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is allocating over P204.6 million to feed more than 131,000 children in Central Visayas through its Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP) this year.

About 4,019 day care centers (DCCs) in the region are expected to benefit from this food supplementation in the form of hot meals served during break time, five times a week for 120 days.

This program provides food to children currently enrolled in DCCs in addition to their regular meals. It also covers children who are under the supervised neighborhood, which plays the part of DSWD’s contribution to the government’s Early Childhood Development (ECD) program.

With this supplemental food, it is expected the nutritional status, attendance rates, and learning achievements of the pre-elementary children will improve.

The parents will manage the feeding program based on a prepared cycle menu using indigenous food materials in their respective villages.

Other than the provision of hot meals, complementary activities like deworming, micronutrient supplementation, nutrition education, Sessions on Parent Effectiveness Service (PES), Pantawid Pamilya's Family Development Session (FDS), Pabasa sa Nutrition, and growth monitoring through monthly weighing and height taking will be undertaken.

Budget per meal is P13 per child per day. The P10 is intended for the purchase of the viand, while the P3 is set aside for the Iron-fortified rice. An I-rice cost P30 per kilo and can serve 10 children at a given time.

Of this amount, DSWD-7 pays P47 million directly to the National Food Authority (NFA) for the purchase of I-rice. The latter will also deliver the rice allocation to all local government units (LGUs) in Central Visayas.

Meanwhile, the more than P157 million budget for the viand will be transferred to all the 131 LGUs in the region for the procurement of indigenous viand available in their localities.

DSWD hopes to achieve a happy and healthy start for every child everyday as a public investment in the future. (HFG/DSWD7/PIA7)