Carmen’s nine-year-old son did not want to eat vegetables before.
But after availing of Gawad Kalinga’s Kusina ng Kalinga (KNK) feeding program, she said that her son now wants to eat vegetables more than ever. He also doesn’t want to miss a class.
Carmen Oprin, 45, is one of the parent volunteers for KNK in Hermani, Eastern Samar.
“Every time my son goes home from school, he always reminds me to go to school the next day to cook for the feeding program,” she said in her testimony during the #EndHunger Summit last Friday at the Cebu Provincial Capitol.
“He always tells me that if I will not go, he will not eat at home,” she recounts in Filipino.
She said that KNK does not just teach her son to eat healthy food, but also teaches them how to prepare nutritious food for their children.
KNK, which aims to end hunger among Filipino children, was launched in Alang-alang, Leyte in August 2014.
Mark Lawrence Cruz, head of New Initiatives department in Gawad Kalinga, said that after Super Typhoon Yolanda, their initial plan was to build more houses for the affected families.
“Then one person told me, ‘Sir, kun sunod bulan pa mo magtukod, mamatay na mi sa kagutom,’” Cruz said.
They then started the feeding program until the KNK was officially launched almost a year after.
They put up central kitchens where they cook free lunch. The cooked food placed inside a lunch box are then delivered to day care centers and elementary schools.
“We work with LGUs, schools and parent volunteers for the feeding program every day,” Cruz said.
At present, GK has 12 kitchens all over the Philippines that feed more than 20,000 children every day.
Joel B. Ranes, the principal of M. Casaus Elementary School in Alang-alang, Leyte, said that through the KNK program, their enrollment has increased from 540 in 2014 to 615 last school year.
“Malnutrition is the fourth reason why our pupils drop out from school,” he said.
However, after the KNK was put up, Ranes said, they have zero drop-out case in the school.
“We have 10 parents who cook our meals every day. Then we have five to 10 parents who deliver it to the different schools,” Ranes said.
Hunger issues in PH
According to Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, former president of Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines is the only country in the Asean that has not accomplished Millennium Development Goal number 1, which is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by at least 50 percent.
“Indonesia has decreased its poverty and hunger from 20 to 10 percent. Vietnam’s poverty went down from 58 percent to at least 15 percent in 2015,” he said.
Nebres said it is possible to end hunger and poverty in the Philippines.
Cruz said that money is not the problem in order to end hunger. “People are the missing elements,” he said.
“We need generous, caring and compassionate people to volunteer in addressing the issue on hunger,” he added.
He said the government is supportive and there are also non-government organizations that are willing to help.
“We need the people.”
Challenges in addressing hunger Ateneo de Manila University Vice President for Social Development, Atty. Jaime Hofileña, said that they have been addressing the issue through their “Blue Plate for Better Learning” feeding program.
“We have partnered with Valenzuela City for this program. Every year we feed at least 16,000 kids from day care and elementary schools,” he said.
However, this school-based feeding program is not enough to address the millions of hungry children in the country, Hofileña said.
“We have feeding program every school day and their nutrition status has improved. But, comes summer vacation, we stop this feeding program,” he added.
Hofileña said the nutrition status of the children beneficiaries drops every summer and that they have to “start from the bottom” in addressing hunger and malnutrition issues once the school year starts. “Feeding programs have to be school-year round,” Hofileña added.
Another challenge, he said is the nutrients these children get from their food at home.
“We serve them healthy food, but do they also eat nutritious food at home?” he added.
To address this problem, Hofileña said, there should be Parent Empowerment Program in which parents are taught how to cook nutritious food for their children.
“In our Blue Plate program, we are happy that we receive comments like ‘I have stopped using MSG (monosodium glutamate)’ or ‘Our children want to eat more vegetables’ from the parents,” he added.
“We have to legislate a certain law for national feeding program,” Hofileña said.
Other feeding initiatives
In Labogon Elementary School in Mandaue City, Cebu, a Busog Lusog Talino (BLT) kitchen is put up to feed at least 800 pupils every day.
There are only 10 BLT kitchens in the Philippines that are sponsored by Jollibee Group Foundation (JGF), of which one is in Mandaue.
“Our LGU (local government unit) sponsors the allowance and salary for our parent volunteers. While JGF refurbished our kitchen and provided new cooking equipment and training for the volunteers and DepEd provides the ingredients,” said Joverly Canoy, principal of the school.
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