ILOILO CITY-The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office VI will release P309 million for the implementation of Supplementary Feeding in Western Visayas.

Of the amount, Aklan Province will receive P21.8 million; Antique, P34 million; Capiz, P25 million; Roxas City, P4.1 million; Guimaras, P7.2 million; Iloilo, P80.2 million; Iloilo City, P16.8 million; Negros Occidental, P112 million; and Bacolod City, P7.8 million.

“With Supplementary Feeding, we are helping solve hunger among young children,” said Salvacion Gayoma, program focal person.

The amount will benefit a total of 198,360 pre-schoolers in the region.

The supplementary feeding program is the provision of food, in addition to the regular meals, to currently enrolled day care center children. This is in the form of hot meals, as recommended by Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) , and served during break time to children in day care centers.

Beneficiaries of the program are three-year-old and four-year-old children; and those five-year-old children not catered in the Department of Education pre-school children but enrolled in day care.

This program is implemented in response to the 2006 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) conducted by the National Statistics Office which showed that 11 percent of Filipino families had income that cannot buy the food needed by family members for nutritional well-being and health. These families can be considered as hungry and food poor. Along with Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, KALAHI-CIDSS or Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services and Sustainable Livelihood Program, Supplementary Feeding seeks to achieve Millennium Development Goal no. 1, which is eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

The feeding program aims to provide augmentation support through feeding program for children in day care centers. Also, it aims to improve knowledge, attitude and practices of children enrolled in day care centers, parents and caregivers through intensified nutrition and health education. In the same manner, it targets to improve and sustain the nutritional status of all target children and refer to health units medical and nutrition-related problems of children./dswd6/May Rago-Castillo