TO help fight hunger and malnourishment in the country, more than 1,000 students in Batangas stand to benefit from the initial phase of Republic Cement’s nutritional program in partnership with Gawad Kalinga (GK).
The cement manufacturer will set up its first Kusina ng Kalinga (KnK) in the province to provide free nutritious lunch meals daily for schoolers from levels Kindergarden to Grade 3 for one school year.
The pupils come from four public-academic institutions in Batangas, namely, Taysan Central School, Mapulo Elementary School, Bilogo Elementary School and Pag-asa Elementary School.
“Our mission at Republic Cement has always been to strengthen and empower communities,” said PV Aquino, director of public affairs and communications of Republic Cement.
He noted they tied up with GK for the project because they saw the model of the Kusina as a sustainable solution to the perennial malnutrition problem, with scalable results in terms of health improvement by the end of the school year.
“Complemented with GK’s vision of addressing hunger among the young, we see this program as a step toward strengthening the future movers and shakers of the community,” he said. The menu of nutritious food be served in the fully equipped kitchen is aligned with the prescribed daily dietary requirements set by the Food Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) for the identified age group.
Launched during the Nutrition Month celebration in July, the campaign is aimed at addressing the common effects of severe hunger and undernourishment among Filipino children.
As per the program, equal importance is placed on caring for children who are “moderately malnourished” or “stunted” under the range of child growth standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO findings showed that “children with moderate malnutrition have an increased risk of mortality and most nutrition-related deaths among children are highly associated with moderate malnutrition.”
“The root cause of malnutrition is it is not approached proactively and sustainably. Conventional wisdom tells us that severe malnutrition must be a public-health priority and while we completely agree, we want to give equal importance to early prevention for children who might be at risk and even children who are currently healthy,” said Jose Luis Oquinena, GK executive director.
“The decision to implement universal feeding stems from our desire to arrest and even reduce instances of malnutrition in the beneficiary schools. We do not want to wait for kids to reach the critical point and be categorized as ‘malnourished’ before we address their [nutritional] needs,” Aquino said.
For this project, mothers of student-beneficiaries have been tapped to assist in all activities in the kitchen from sanitary food preparation to distribution.
Both Republic Cement and GK have also been conducting routine parent-teacher orientations. They will mount workshops for parents to teach them basic, cost-efficient and healthy food preparation for their children.
“In our experience with Kusina ng Kalinga, a common realization among volunteer parents is that nutritious and hearty meals need not be expensive or difficult to prepare. We’re hoping to achieve that same behavior and mindset change here [in Batangas] because sound health practices really start at home,” said Kalayaan Santa Barbara, KnK operations head for South Luzon.
“We believe nourishment is essential to progress. Providing our young with physical nourishment ultimately means nourishing their dreams. Our youth, after all, is the foundation of our country and stronger kids make for a stronger Republic,” Republic Corporate Communications Manager Vida Rodriguez said.
Republic Cement plans to expand the program to more schools in the short term.