LUNA, Apayao July 17 – Concerned stakeholders pledged their support to purchase nutritious snacks produced by the P10 million Apayao Complementary Food Facility to help in addressing malnutrition among pre-school and schoolchildren in the countryside.
Officials of the Cordillera offices of the National Nutrition Council (NNC), Department of Education, Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Commission on Higher Education agreed through a memorandum of understanding that the agencies will purchase from the facility the produced nutritious snacks as part of the convergence program to significantly reduce malnutrition and help in addressing poverty.
Dr. Nieves A. Dacyon, president of the Apayao State College (ASC), said the Cordillera office of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-CAR) which provided the funding for the purchase of the food production equipment amounting to P4.2 million, the ASC provided the funds for the construction of the building housing the facility with a total amount of P4.6 million, while the Apayao provincial government and the Luna municipal government donated the almost 7-hectare land where the facility was built in a portion thereof as well as the trainings of technical people who will operate the production facility.
The food production facility was realized through the efforts of DOST-CAR regional director Julius Caesar V. Sicat who made representations with the Food Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) to prioritize the Cordillera as one of the beneficiaries of the project considering the high prevalence of malnutrition among pre-school and schoolchildren over the past several years.
The facility will be mass producing nutritious snacks which will be sold in canteens of schools in Regions I, II and the Cordillera and the supplemental feeding program of concerned government agencies to inculcate in the minds of the people the importance of addressing malnutrition while the children are young for them to be able to grow and be assets of the community.
ASC will continue to partner with the provincial government and the municipal government as well as other concerned agencies to be able to widely spouse for the selling and consumption of nutritious snacks beneficial to the growth of children and addressing poverty in the countryside.
The representatives of stakeholders vowed to continue extending their support in order to guarantee the success of the complementary food production facility because the same has a noble purpose, especially in curbing malnutrition in the countryside.
In the Cordillera, Apayao and Abra are the two provinces which have high malnutrition rates among pre-school and schoolchildren that prompted concerned government agencies to seek for other long-term interventions that would contribute in significantly reducing such cases in the future.
Dacyon cited there is still a need to further add up to the amenities of the facility, thus, the importance of collaborating and converging with the Apayao provincial government and Luna municipal government to further uplift the facility into engaging into the sustained mass production of the nutritious snacks required to be consumed by children.
