LA TRINIDAD, Benguet, Philippines?Among a waiting shed, a view deck or a welcome arc, and a feeding program, chances are many elected officials will give priority to the former and similar infrastructure projects during their incumbency.

Infrastructure projects are visible and will come in handy during the next electoral campaign as proof of a politician?s ?performance.? This, however, will not apply to feeding and nutrition programs, whose indicators are not readily visible.

Local governments are mandated to allot 30 percent of their budget for health and nutrition programs. The allocation can support feeding programs that help reduce malnutrition among preschool and grade school children.

Despite this and the Department of Education?s (DepEd?s) instant noodle-based feeding program under the Arroyo administration, malnutrition and hunger remain a big challenge.

Twenty-six out of 100 (26.2 percent) of preschool children, zero to 5 years old, and 25.6 percent of 6- to 10-year old pupils were underweight, according to the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FRI) national nutrition survey in 2008.

Social Weather Stations also reported in June a 21.1 percent hunger rate, which comprised some 4 million families, 800,000 of whom suffered from ?severe? hunger, and 3.2 million ?moderately? suffered.

Spelling success

To battle hunger and malnutrition at the grassroots, local government and multisectoral support is crucial, antihunger and antimalnutrition advocates said during their July 19-21 national meeting in La Trinidad, capital town of Benguet.

?Where there is better multi-sectoral participation, which includes the churches and local governments, there is better success for our feeding program,? said Florinda Lacanlalay, director of Hapag-Asa (Hope for the Table), a feeding program of the Metro Manila-based Assisi Foundation.

Hapag-Asa and its main partner in northern Luzon?the Bethesda Ministries International (a Christian group based in Itogon, Benguet)?convened more than 50 other partners from the DepEd in northern and Central Luzon to assess their program and plan for the next six months.

Since 2007, both groups have been collaborating with the DepEd on a six-month feeding program for some schools with malnourished children.

Central to the feeding program is Vita-Meal, a specially formulated energy-packed, protein-rich, and vitamin-and-mineral-fortified cereal and lentil food, which Hapag-Asa and Bethesda have been accessing from overseas partners.

If well-implemented and supported, the Vita-Meal-based feeding program should have completely reversed malnutrition after six months, said Bishop Donald Soriano of Bethesda.

But he reechoed Lacanlalay?s observation that the program could get better results if the local governments and other sectors were involved. He cited four out of nine beneficiary schools in Ifugao that had succeeded because of the support of local governments.

?For better impact, we need local government support to help transport the food, provide cooking utensils and fuel, and supplementary ingredients,? Soriano said.

The program also continues to help revive the health of malnourished children in Quirino because of support from the provincial and some municipal and barangay councils, including church groups, said Raquel Dicsa Layacan, DepEd division medical officer in that province.

Layacan said the program had begun to be institutionalized. The Quirino nutrition committee has set up a ?parallel program with budget support,? which has strengthened the feeding program of Hapag-Asa, Bethesda and DepEd.

?Luckily, we were able to convince some town governments to include in their budget the allocations for nutrition and feeding programs,? Layacan said.

But not all local governments do the same. Some, Soriano discovered, had been using their mandated 30-percent health and nutrition budget for such activities as sports competitions and fiesta celebrations.

Volunteerism

Appropriate infrastructure facilities are also needed for the feeding program, DepEd officials say.

With the feeding program, school children have become more motivated to attend school. Despite their motivation, some children in remote Quirino towns and villages cannot go to school when creeks and rivers swell when it rains because of the absence of footbridges, Layacan said.

In Cagayan Valley, where the feeding program has targeted students in remote villages, the DepEd has to mobilize military helicopters to deliver packs of Vita-Meal and other supplements, said Edgar Maramag, DepEd division nutritionist.

In Calanasan town in Apayao, teachers and volunteers last year had to part with 11 bags of Vita-Meal (which could supply the supplemental meal of 50 children in 44 days) when the makeshift bamboo raft they were using to cross a river capsized, Soriano said.

Marilou Jacob-Claveria of the DepEd Apayao stressed the need for footbridges in several villages so children can safely cross swollen creeks and rivers during the rainy season.

Hapag-Asa and Bethesda hailed teachers and other DepEd personnel whose volunteerism and heroism continue to fill in the lack of infrastructure support for the feeding program.

Soriano cited a school nurse in Alfonso Lista, Ifugao, who would hike six hours, carrying a weighing scale to monitor the weight of schoolchildren and all teachers who had added the feeding program to their already heavy teaching loads.

Teachers and health personnel reported 70 to 90 percent rehabilitation of malnourished children, each of them regaining half to one kilogram weight after six months of feeding.

They also reported other results, such as better class participation, increased school attendance and better resistance to diseases.

But both Lacanlalay and Soriano saw the feeding program as a way through which various sectors in the community could engage local officials for better governance and partnership.