DepEd's Food for School Program benefits 441,101 families
Some 441,101 families benefited from the Food for School program of the Department of Education (DepEd).
The program which started on November 7, 2005 has distributed seven kilograms of rice per family, once a week to 97.6 percent of its target as of March 2006.
This was reported during the recent meeting of the National Nutrition Council (NNC) presided by Vice President Noli de Castro.
Under the program the distribution is done through the day care children and pre-elementary school children from poor families, who were encouraged to send their children to school in exchange for the rice subsidy.
According to preliminary reports, 89.6 percent of the beneficiaries said the program provided additional food to their family while 33.7 percent said the program resulted in no missed meals in the past three months.
The March Social Weather Stations survey showed that the program in combination with the Tindahan Natin project is partly responsible for bringing hunger down from 21 percent to 18.3 percent in Metro Manila.
A redesigned Food for School program is being proposed to increase the number of children receiving a kilo of free rice from over 400,000 to 1.3 million with hunger vulnerable areas as priority.
The government is now addressing the problem of poverty by expanding not only the Food for School program but also other food assistance programs such as the "Tindahan Natin" project, Barangay Food Terminal and Food for Work.
During the said meeting, Vice President Noli de Castro underscored the need to further strengthen these programs and to make sure that these reach the intended beneficiaries.
Also, he stressed that in addition to the food assistance programs, employment generating projects should be the priority of the government.
(PIA)