Rey Anthony Chiu
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, July 6, 2012 (PIA) – Sustainability, which previous nutritional feeding programs are anemic, would be boosted by a dose of parent empowerment, say authorities at the Department of Education (DepED).
Assistant Schools Division Superintendent Dr. Wilfreda Bongalos and communications director Pablito Villalon shared this at the recent Kapihan sa PIA.
The dosage would make this round of feeding programs unlike the past when the government is even accused of being myopic in implementing supplemental feeding program characteristic only of nutrition month celebrations.
The government’s feeding program earned critics who accuse it of promoting dependents in dole-outs while adding that the feeding programs do very little when it is only for the Nutrition Month.
N this, the DepEd says when the past feeding programs used their home economics teacher to cook and prepare the food, now it is the parents who prepare the menu for the day.
This lows parents to adopt the skill and the habit of cooking nutritious foods instead, to sustain the preparation of healthy food at home, Dr. Bongalos summed.
On his part, Villalon, who used to be a public school principal explained that the “Breakfast Feeding program” uses the services of parents who cook the food which they serve to undernourished kindergarten to grade 3 kids.
“These parents follow a vegetable-based menu which the DepED approves after being found to be beneficial to the physical and mental development of the kids,” he said.
We hope that when these parents go home, they can use the same menu and continue with the nutrient supplementation program we implement in the schools, adds Dr. Bongalos.
The entire country celebrates Nutrition Month in July and Bohol Nutrition Coordinator Juliet Manliguez hopes Boholanos can finally attain a certain level of health which makes them productive workers.
A productive worker, she pointed out, increases financial independence and allows them to buy more quality and nutrition packed food to finally end the cycle of poverty and sickness. (30)