'Gulayan ng Paaralan Project' benefits 127 schools in Antique
The Gulayan ng Paaralan Project (GPP) of the Department of Agriculture benefited 127 elementary schools and 10,535 households in the province of Antique. The project aims to alleviate hunger and malnutrition in vulnerable areas.
In the list, the town of Sibalom has the most number of recipient schools with 60 schools. It has yet to replicate the program in order to benefit the households in the schools' neighboring barangays.
The other towns in the province with elementary schools beneficiaries are: Anini-y with 18 elementary schools; Barbaza, 15; Belison, 8; Libertad, 15 and Sebaste.
In the number of household beneficiaries, the town of Patnongon has the most number of recipients with 1,000; Anini-y 1,669; Barbaza 2,500; Belison 354; Libertad 2,200; Sebaste 1,767; Hamtic 235; San Jose 300 and Valderama 500.
The recipient schools were already provided with different vegetable seeds such as ampalaya, eggplant, okra, pole sitao, squash and kangkong. They were also given sacks of organic fertilizer.
The GPP project, which is a nationwide project, was introduced by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo through the agriculture department in 2006. Under the project, beneficiaries will provide the neighboring schools or households of the seeds as soon as they can have their harvest.
The harvest will be cooked in feeding the malnourished kids. The recipient schools were chosen based on the survey result of the National Nutrition Council on the schools with high percentage of malnourished kids.
Meanwhile, DA 6 will launch their GPP project in the province of Aklan on Friday. There are 37 elementary schools identified as beneficiaries of the project.
The launching will be attended by DA Regional Technical Director for Operations Remelyn Recoter, provincial, municipal officials of Aklan and officials of the Department of Education (DepEd). It will be held in the town of Tangalan.
For the province of Aklan, there are 15 schools in Buruanga, eight in Lezo and 14 in Tangalan that are included in the project. The schools' neighboring barangays will also be provided with the vegetables seeds as soon the covered schools can harvest the vegetables and produce good quality seeds.