AT LEAST 126,267 children enrolled in children development centers (CDCs) in Central Visayas have been served by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 7 in partnership with local government units (LGUs) in 2019.
The DSWD 7 currently implements the ninth cycle of its Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP).
The National Government provides additional nutritious food to the regular meals of children in the community through the SFP of the DSWD. The program aims to improve and sustain the healthy status of the children in various LGU-managed day care centers/Supervised Neighborhood Play (SNP) areas and communities.
The program’s food supplementation is in the form of hot meals served during snack/meal time to children five days in a week for 120 days.
The SFP children are weighed at the onset of the feeding and 60 days thereafter, and after the completion of 120 feeding days to determine improvement and sustenance in their nutritional status.
The program’s target beneficiaries are children aged two to three years old under the SNP group, three- to four-year-olds in child development centers and five-year-old children who are not enrolled in the Department of Education (DepEd) pre-school but are in day care centers.
In the ninth cycle of the SFP’s implementation in Central Visayas, a total of P210,702,600 has been allocated for the 3,497 CDCs and SNP groups in Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental and Siquijor.
Aside from the provision of supplemental food, complementary activities like deworming, micronutrient supplementation, nutrition education, and growth monitoring are also done to fully maximize the impact of the SFP.
Also during the SFP’s ninth cycle this year, a series of orientation on the program’s guidelines was conducted for the LGUs to ensure continued proper implementation of the program in various CDCs and SNPs.
From the first cycle up to the ninth cycle of the SFP implementation, the DSWD 7 has already served a total of 1,212,944 children in Central Visayas.
The SFP is also part of the department’s contribution to the Early Childhood Care and Development program of the National Government.