More fortified rice for school kids assured
More than 10,000 bags of iron-fortified rice of the government are intended for school children of Capiz.
Information Officer Edna Artates of the National Food Authority (NFA) in Capiz revealed that a total of 10,364 bags of fortified rice have been set aside by their office for repackaging and distribution to the identified public elementary schools in the province.
Artates stressed that the beneficiaries of the 1 kilogram of rice per day include the pre-school children and grade I pupils in the identified public elementary schools of the Department of Education (DepEd).
The Food-for-School program dubbed as "Bigas sa Mag-aaral at Pamilya" is one of the government's measures to fight hunger as well as improve school attendance of children.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently congratulated the DepEd for its implementation of the Food-for-School Program as she noted that one of the problems cited in the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) is the high dropout rate of elementary school children.
The Food-for-School programs in day care centers and pre-schools entice parents to send their children to schools, the study showed.
Education Secretary Jesli Lapus earlier said that the DepEd has expanded the coverage of its schoolfeeding program meant at improving the attendance and performance of public school children.
Lapus said that student beneficiaries of the program rose from 300 percent in 2007 compared to previous year.
Meanwhile, Artates said that NFA is set to resume this month the distribution and door-to-door delivery of fortified rice to public elementary schools.
She said that the province has identified 14,806 beneficiaries from the 313 DepEd-supervised public pre-school and elementary schools in Capiz. (PIA)