Sunday, October 22, 2006
S. Cotabato to expand food aid program
THE Provincial Government of South Cotabato is planning to expand the coverage of the Food for School Program (FSP), a hunger relief program of the National Government.
Bella Lechonsito, provincial social welfare and development office chief, said the local government is currently seeking complementary programs from different government agencies in order to sustain its goal to alleviate the incidence of hunger in rural areas.
"Aside from the distribution of one kilo of rice, there should be complementary programs such as nutrition and livelihood," Lechonsito said.
FSP primarily aims to mitigate hunger of poor families and improve the attendance rate of poor children in schools.
The program is being implemented in the fourth class municipalities of Sto. Nino, Tantangan and Tampakan.
FSP was set as immediate intervention to address hunger among families through their children in grade 1, pre-school and day care levels.
"It is a form of food subsidy for young learners who belong to poor families," a program briefer cited.
Under the program, the beneficiaries would be provided with daily rations of a kilo of rice for a limited period of time.
"As long as the child goes to school or day care center, the family is assured of rice on its table every day, which will eventually contribute to the improvement of their nutritional status," it said.
The beneficiaries are pre-school and grade 1 pupils in the National Capital Region (NCR), divisions of Sulu and Tawi- Tawi in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and selected public elementary schools in 49 provinces.
The results of the quarterly self-rated hunger survey conducted by the Social Weather Station reflect an increasing incidence of hunger in the country.
The results showed that hunger was highest in Mindanao at 21 percent, NCR at 18.3 percent, Visayas at 16 percent and Luzon at 14.7 percent.
Compared to the last quarter of 2005, the incidence of severe hunger, which refer to families who experienced hunger often or always in the last three months increased from 3.9 percent to 4.2 percent affecting an estimated 700,000 families. (Allen V. Estabillo)
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(October 16, 2006 issue)
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