THE National Dairy Authority (NDA), an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), is launching next month a milk feeding program that would benefit at least 5,208 kindergarten and Grade 1 pupils in Zamboanga City.
NDA Regional Manager Marilyn Mabale said the beneficiaries of the program will come from selected public schools with the highest population in this city.
Mabale said that under the program, each child will be given 200 milliliter chocolate milk five days a week for 120 feeding days starting August until January of next year.
Mabale said the milk feeding program will be a joint project of the NDA, Department of Education (DepEd) and Office of the City Mayor since it was initiated in 2012 by Mayor Ma. Isabelle Climaco-Salazar when she was still the first district representative.
Mabale said the program’s P10-million funding will include administrative costs as the NDA will have to make sure that the feeding program is implemented according to its guidelines to ensure that the expected output will be realized.
She said they have partnered with Zamboangueño businessman Nonito Bernardo, who owns the NJB Farm in the village Ayala, a recipient of the Dairy Program of NDA.
Under the partnership agreement, she said that the NJB Farm avails of dairy cattle from NDA and operates the processing plant that will process, produce and supply the milk products to the target children-beneficiaries in Zamboanga City. (Bong Garcia/Sunnex)