The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Central Visayas hosts the national conference of implementers of the Supplementary Feeding Program from December 2 to 5, 2024, in Mandaue City, Cebu.
Some 160 participants, composed of nutritionist dieticians, technical staff, and focal persons from all regions in the country, including the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, gathered at the conference. The conference aims to update the feeding menu to ensure access to learning meal options and improve the implementation of the agency’s feeding program.
One of the highlights of the activity is a presentation from the Department of Science and Technology—Food and Nutrition Research Institute that educates the implementers of SFP on how they can develop, modify, enhance, and plan their menu using available local resources and technologies crafted by and anchored on the latest calendar of DOST-FNRI.
Toshio Murakami and Vasundhara Bijalwan of the United Nations-World Food Programme (UN-WFP) discussed the School Meal Plus Tool, which aims to give SFP implementers insights on how to use this WFP innovation—a menu creation platform for creating affordable, nutritious, and local meals for children at school.
This technology-based platform will guide SFP implementers to craft a menu for the next cycle of the agency feeding program, which targets preschool children enrolled in daycare centers.
Meanwhile, the Tutok Kainan of the National Nutrition Council (NCC) allowed the participants to have an overview of the menu crafted to complement the dietary supplementation of the first 1000 days of life or the period of pregnancy to the first two years of life to contribute to the prevention of stunting among infants and young children.
NCC’s Ellen Ruth F. Abella said that understanding the F1KD menu will ensure nutrition balance for mothers and their children during the critical years of development.
Lastly, the Food Safety and Hygiene Academy of the Philippines (FoodSHAP) introduced the Food Safety Standards and Food Safety Home, which must be observed well in preparing food and milk for beneficiaries.
Nearing its fifteenth year, SFP remains one of the DSWD vital programs that help combat hunger and malnutrition among children ages 2 to 5 enrolled in child development centers by providing hot meals and milk for 120 feeding days to address the incidence of malnutrition among preschoolers.
National data says that SFP served 2,020,927 children beneficiaries in child development centers in 1,573 local government units in the country, which covers the academic year.
“We know that we have critical targets in the GAA—good outcomes on the nutritional status of our beneficiaries, but this will only happen when children have access to good nutrition and healthy menu options. As you keep your focus on our goals, do not forget to take care of yourselves by taking time to prioritize your mental health and manage your stress with the help of this very first conference for SFP staff,” host region’s Regional Director Shalaine Marie S. Lucero said to the participants.
DSWD Program Management Bureau Director Edmon B. Monteverde agreed that the conference will benefit the program.
“The SFP has been implemented for 14 years already, and it has been constantly improving to address the nutrition-specific needs of young children while it continues to improve their nutritional status by providing hot meals and milk,” he said.
He added that the program staff members are vital to ensuring that the nation will achieve its goal of eradicating hunger and malnutrition.
“Some of the regions are already closing the current cycle implementation. We want to give them a venue to equip them with stress management and techniques to ensure they can still deliver a good service and build relationships with partners come 2025.” ###
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