Butuan City- The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-Caraga, through the Local Government Units (LGUs) in the region, already started its Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP) for day care children enrolled in the SY 2016-2017.

It aims to improve and sustain the nutritional status of target children beneficiaries by providing hot meals.

The kick-off is timely with this year’s Nutrition Month Celebration with the theme “First 1000 Days ni Baby Pahalagahan Para sa Malusog na Kinabukasan”.

As to date, cheques were released to 14 LGUs for the implementation of the said program. The following municipalities are on the list: Jabonga, Santiago, Esperanza, Prosperidad, Trento, San Isidro, Bacuag, Surigao City, Taganaan, Basilisa, Bayabas, Madrid, San Miguel, and Barobo.

From the list, Jabonga, Santiago, Taganaan, Bayabas, and Barobo started their feeding program.

According to Lea Radaza, regional focal person of SFP, they are waiting for other LGUs to comply the requirements such as master list for the day care children, weight monitoring report, and other documents prior the release of the cheque intended for the feeding program.

“We set deadline for the LGU to submit all the requirements next week for the full blast implementation of the program. This will ensure that the day care children are well-nourished as they attend classes,’’ she added.

“Every child who is currently enrolled in day care center is given hot meal a day composed of rice and viand amounting to Php15.00. This program is intended for 120 days,” explained Radaza.

For 2016, the DSWD targets 76,142 day care children to avail the program with a total allocated fund of Php137,055,600.

SFP is the provision of food, in addition to regular meals, to currently enrolled day care children as part of DSWD’s contribution to the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) program of the government. ###(ABEGAIL R. ALVAREZ/Social Marketing Unit/DSWD Field Office Caraga)