THE second “Busog Lusog Talino” (BLT) Kitchen in Negros Occidental was formally opened at the Maria Lopez Elementary School (MLES) in line with the pre-Sinigayan Festival activities of Sagay City on March 11.
This BLT kitchen, which was built through the multisectoral effort of the City Government, the Department of Education (DepEd) -Schools Division of Sagay, Jollibee Group Foundation, and non-government organization Communities First, aims to help undernourished pupils of the six public elementary schools across Sagay.
BLT School Feeding Kitchen Project supports the implementation of the School-Based Feeding Program of DepEd. The facility in Sagay is the second of its kind in Negros next to Sipalay City.
The inauguration was led by Mayor Alfredo Marañon III, DepEd-Western Visayas Director Gemma Ledesma, Schools Superintendent Marsette Sabbaluca, Regional Business Unit for Visayas Winston Sia, Jollibee Foods Corp. officials, BLT program manager LA Cruzat of Jollibee Group Foundation, and Communities First executive director Katherine Maguad.
The kitchen
The location of the facility is previously an old classroom but was refurbished and repurposed as BLT Kitchen to host cooking activities, Maguad said.
“Earlier before the kitchen was finished, 10 parents and the pool of Deped division focal persons were trained to kick-start the use of the BLT system using standardized recipes, procurement and reporting templates as part of the preparation for the full operations,” she said.
The Sagay schools benefitting in the project are MLES, Old Sagay Elementary School, B. V. Rodriguez Elementary School, Ricardo Gamboa Elementary School, Raymundo Tupas Elementary School and J. B. Puey Elementary School.
Maguad said that the bulk preparation cooking and portioning of healthy viand for a total of 577 undernourished pupils from a cluster of six public schools were done daily since December 2018 in MLES. (PR)