BAGUIO CITY – What is “vitameal” and why are mothers complaining about it?

The food – a combination of legumes, dehydrated vegetables and other grains and which is being served in feeding programs in some public elementary schools in Mt. Province and Abra – became the object of criticism of mothers who attended the regional conference of the women’s group Innabuyog-Gabriela here last week.

The vitameal, they said, replaced the government’s one-kilogram rice subsidy when classes started in June.

The women said they were dismayed because the vitameal was pungent and tasted bitter or sour.

“I cannot believe that this is the kind of food that the government is serving our children. It’s not edible. Some children threw it away while some fed it to their dogs,” said Carol Bagyan, member of Binnadang, a women’s group based in Mt. Province.

No labels

She said the vitameal is packaged in transparent plastic bags that have no labels.

About three cups of the cereal are distributed to students everyday, she said. Some mothers volunteer to cook the vitameal for the mass feeding program.

Bagyan said the mothers would boil the cereal with sugar, milk and chocolate powder to make its taste appealing to students.

“We would have to spend more to buy ingredients to make the meal edible. Instead of saving money, we have to spend more for sugar and seasoning,” she said.

But Dr. Juliet Tontino, head of the health and nutrition unit of the Department of Education in the Cordillera, said the distribution of the vitameal was not part of the government’s hunger mitigation program in the provinces.

She said a religious group, which she did not identify, distributed the vitameal packs in Abra and Mt. Province.

“Our regional office is not even aware how this meal came about. This is not part of DepEd’s food for school program. What we heard is that this was a project sponsored by a pastor of a local church group that sponsors feeding programs,” Tontino said in a telephone interview.

Clueless

“The vitameal did not pass through DepEd. This group just used our program,” she said.

Bagyan said even teachers were clueless about the source of vitameal.

“The teachers do not know who manufactures the vitameal and where it comes from. They just told us that the Department of Education ordered them to distribute the vitameal,” she said in a press forum here on Friday.

Tontino said while the government has suspended the rice subsidy distribution in schools in Abra and Mt. Province, DepEd is committed to resume the food for school program later this year.

Dr. Myrna Cabotaje, regional director of the Department of Health, said she was not aware of the vitameal distribution in the region.