The Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office Cordillera Administrative Region (DSWD FO CAR) has recorded 79.95% improvement in the nutritional status of children receiving the agency’s Supplementary Feeding Program.
The Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP) is DSWD’s contribution to the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition for 2017-2022 under the National Dietary Supplementation Program. It provides hot meals to 36 -60 months old children enrolled in Child Development Centers(CDC) and Supervised neighborhood Play (SNP) for 120 days.
For the 11th cycle (2021-2022), 596 out of 729 severely underweight children improved to underweight status while 2,255 out of 3,126 underweight children moved to normal weight.
SFP Focal Eleonor Bugalin-Ayan said that around 42,940 children benefitted from the 11th cycle of the program.
Since September 2022, the SFP resumed with its face to face feeding in the centers. It halted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, good were delivered to the children’s household.
For the 12th cycle (2022-2023), the DSWD is expected to serve around 47,973 with a budget of around PhP 83,430,000.00.
“The past years have been challenging in the implementation of our Supplementary Feeding Program since our children were not allowed to go to our centers but we were still able to accomplish our task with the strong support from our partner Local Government Units and the parents” DSWD FO CAR Regional Director Leo L. Quintilla said.
The LGUs and parents provided support to the program through the donation of other materials not included in the provision of the DSWD’s SFP including liquified petroleum gas and vegetables. As part of the program design, parents also assist in the preparation of meals of the children.
“We are always grateful to the parents and our local governments in supporting our programs and services. In 2023, we assure them that we will continue this strong collaboration for us to continue the gains that we have already started”, Director Quintilla added. #DSWD-CAR, SOCIAL MARKETING UNIT, Nerizza Faye G. Villanueva- Trinidad
