MANILA, Philippines—A Quezon City councilor is proposing a regular milk feeding program for the city’s preschoolers in an effort to curb malnutrition to which most childhood deaths is attributed.
A draft ordinance filed by fourth district Councilor Raquel Malañgen seeks to establish a program, to be subsidized by the city, for the distribution of fresh cow, carabao, or goat milk to children aged five to seven specifically in the barangay (village) day care centers and local preschools.
The measure was referred during Monday’s regular session to the council’s committees on laws, rules, and internal government; on health and sanitation; and on children’s affairs.
In pushing for the program, Malañgen cited the United Nations Children’s Fund’s report in which it said that “Malnutrition is associated with more than half of less-than-5-year-old children’s deaths worldwide. Undernourished children are more likely to die from common childhood ailments, and for those who survive, have recurring sicknesses and growth faltering.”
A 2005 study by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (FNRI-DOST) on the National Milk Feeding Program of the agriculture department’s National Dairy Authority revealed that locally produced fresh milk helped improve the participating children’s diet and nutritional status, contributing eight percent total energy, 12 percent protein and 41 percent calcium intake.
The FNRI-DOST found that the milk ration decreased the prevalence of thinness among program participants and reduced the occurrence of acute respiratory infection among the children. Other positive improvements, the agency noted, were in the children’s overall disposition and physical appearance.
Malañgen explained, “By milk feeding, this measure proposes the distribution of locally produced fresh milk for direct intake of children 5 to 7 years of age, to be taken from produce of local milk suppliers and sponsors from the government and private sector.”
She also proposed the establishment of a milk feeding fund to ensure that the “Milk Feeding Program of 2014” is sustained.
Under the draft measure, no milk intended for the program is to be sold commercially, and priority is to be given to children in barangay (village) day care centers and preschools. According to data from the Quezon City government website, there are 272 city-owned daycare centers.
The proposed ordinance states that the Quezon City government, the local schools division office and the city social services and development department are to enter into a memorandum of agreement to set aside a budget for the program.
Funding, according to the proposed ordinance, will come from the city’s available funds, sponsorships, and donations from outside sources.
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