DUMAGUETE CITY (PNA) – Provincial Social Welfare and Development Officer Alice Lagarde said that the Food for School Program being implemented for daycare children has showed a positive effect.

The Food for School is a program funded by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) wherein children are provided with one kilo of rice every school day they are present in classes. The program is still part of the effort in combating poverty in the country.

Lagarde said daycare children are weighed in the beginning and towards the end of the school year.
She said their records showed that there is a slight decrease in the number of malnourished daycare children after the implementation of the Food for School program.

She noted the one kilo of rice assures the entire family of the food that they will have to share in a meal.

The program was also complimented with hot meal feeding and supplemental feeding program in some of the local government units (LGUs) in the province.

The provincial government also allocated some amount for the implementation of other supplemental feeding programs that will combat malnutrition in the province.

Among the intervention programs in nutrition is the milk feeding program for school children by Land O’ Lakes Foundation and giving of hot meal to daycare children, which is also being supported by some of the local government units.

Recently, Negros Oriental has been identified as having the highest malnutrition rate in Central Visayas because of the lack of sufficient nutrition program among LGUs that have high malnutrition rate.

Meanwhile, Lagarde clarified that she still has not received the memorandum from DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman reportedly ordering to stop the implementation of the Food for School program.

The three congressmen of the province even made clarifications on the said report since it might also affect the Free Noon Meal Feeding program to the elementary school children.

Negros Oriental is identified as pilot province in the implementation of the Free Noon Meal feeding program in the country in lieu of giving a kilo of rice to every school children.

In another development, clients being served at the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital (NOPH) can now enjoy better food with the latest facility – a modern dietary kitchen that is now fully operational.

The latest addition to the hospital spans three administrations and hopes to provide healthy and nutritious diet and safe and sanitary food to the patients, said Capitol Information Officer Adrian Sedillo.

According to Sedillo, the project was first started during the time of then Gov. George Arnaiz (now congressman of the 2nd district) and continued by the late Gov. Emilio Macias II until the time of his death on June 13.

Gov. Agustin Perdices, who was elected vice governor last May and succeeded the position of Macias by virtue of the latter’s death, led the blessing and inauguration of the modern dietary kitchen recently.