1,000 sacks of rice for students in ‘Yolanda’-hit areas

The Department of Education (DepEd) will distribute 1,000 sacks of rice to more than 25,000 students in areas devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

The rice was donated by the Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation (PDRF) to support the DepEd’s school feeding program that aims to boost student nutrition and class attendance.

“When you give children something extra, like school kits and feeding programs, we motivate them to go back to school. We go over 80 percent [in attendance],” said Education Secretary Armin Luistro.

The 1,000 sacks of rice, which the PDRF will buy from the National Food Authority, are intended to supply the needs of the feeding program for a month.

Eastern Visayas will receive 400 sacks of rice; Western Visayas, 300; northern Cebu, 200, and northern Palawan, 100.

Luistro said classes had already started in Yolanda-affected areas, mostly in temporary learning spaces.

The secretary said construction of the learning places “was very quick because we used indigenous materials.”

He added that the DepEd was still looking for suitable locations in the typhoon-hit areas where it could build permanent classrooms.

With the budget already available, he said the DepEd “hoped to begin construction by March.”

He said what the DepEd needed now was help for classroom repairs. Kristine Felisse Mangunay