Publications

SCHOOL-BASED FEEDING PROGRAM IN THE NEW NORMAL

by:
Analie N. Bihasa
Teacher III, J.C. Payumo Jr. Elementary School

Department of Education issued Do 39, s. 2017 which states that all school shall
implement the School-Based Feeding Program (SBFP) for School Year (SY) 2017-2022
to address undernutrition among public school children.

School Feeding Program plays an important role in increasing the schools’

enrolment and school achievement. SBFP also caters the deworming and
micronutrients supplements through the vitamins given to beneficiaries.

Attainment of its goals and objectives

The SBFP covers all Severely Wasted (SW) and Wasted (W) pupils for SY 2020-
2021. The program aims to improve the nutritional status of the beneficiaries by at least
70% at the end of 120 feeding days, to increase classroom attendance by 85% to 100% and
to improve the children’s health and nutrition values and behavior.

To attain its goals and objectives, SBFP committee ask schools to help and assess
all their pupils Nutritional Status and coordinate with the parents and community the
goals, function and responsibility of the SBFP.

Target beneficiaries are based on the Nutritional Assessment of teachers holds on

July every year but due to the pandemic, it is held on the month of October.

Today as we are facing a great health threat, SBFP continuously caters all the SW
and W pupils.

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With travel restriction among elementary pupils, the SBFP decided to change
the distribution of food packs, instead of pupils receiving their food packs, the parents
would get it following the Heath protocols.

Budget Utilization

Each school were given an amount or budget to buy things and food supply for
the SBFP implementation. The SBFP budgets were given to each School Feeding
Coordinator. All SBFP beneficiaries of Dinalupihan will receive similar food packs
which contains bread, cereals and fruits. Each beneficiary was provided a daily meal
worth ₱
18.00 from Monday to Friday. Every Monday, the parent will receive ₱ 90.00 worth of
breads, cereals and fruits.

And to assess utilization of budget, each SBFP coordinator will submit reports that
will show that each recipient received the said food packs.

Selection and participation rate of the recipients

Every July, Teachers are tasked to get the nutritional Status of all its learners, we
are given a template wherein we are going to measure and encode the gender,
birthday, weight and height. Then the School Clinic Teacher will gather and process all
the data. From her/his template, she will identify all the Severely Wasted and Wasted
Pupils together with the feeding coordinator they will submit all the list of the SW and
W pupils to the District nurse for District consolidation. Then from the data gather,
they will have an orientation of the School Feeding Coordinator to provide them
current information and planning of the 120 days cycle.

During this SY 2020-2021, our school has 170 School-Based Feeding Program
beneficiaries. These beneficiaries will be given food packs for 120 days.

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Execution And Management

With Covid-19, the SBFP takes into consideration that there is no face to face
classes. The School Feeding Coordinator takes the lead in managing the SBFP. She is
tasked to gather all the contact information of all the parents of the beneficiary.

Unlike before, the SBFP uses its funds and strength to cook delicious and nutritious
food at lunch time, this time they have decided to convert the budget into breads, fruits
and cereals.

And instead of daily food packs they opt to give it weekly to lessen the worries of
day to day physical contact of parents and teachers. Every Monday each beneficiary
will get one week supply of breads, fruits and cereals. The parent will get the food
packs of her child.

Success Indications

To measure the success of SBFP, teachers were tasked to supply the end-line
Data of Nutritional status.

To measure the success of SBFP, the number of wasted and severely wasted pupils
were converted to Normal Status.

Each recipient should improve their Nutritional Status by 70%.

School attendance and better output from the beneficiaries will also observe.
Pupils response in answering the modules will be observed.

The Recipients will also develop positive health habits such as washing hands
before and after eating, tooth brushing and good grooming.

Impact of SBFP to National Development

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Given the Rating of 5 as the highest and 1 as the lowest, I can say that the SBFP
should be rated 5 because its goals and objectives were attained. Results of SBFP were
observable. There is an observable increase in school attendance.

During this pandemic time, many families encounter financial difficulties, they
have encountered hard times to provide the basic needs of their families so this SBFP will
help them in providing nutritious food for their child. It will lessen the burden of every
parent who will receive the food packs.

Having a healthy child, they will have a more active and more fruitful day to do
their task especially in answering and learning Modules. They will have a strong mind
to access quality education. They will have a strong will power to continue learning
even though they are facing the fear of covid 19.

An educated child can help in developing the strength and improving the
economy of our country just like what Jose Rizal said ‘ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng
bayan’.

A healthy youth will develop relevant skills such as technical and vocational skills
for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship that will improve our economy and
promote National Development.

References:

https://www.deped.gov.ph/2017/08/07/do-39-s-2017-operational-guidelines-on-the-
implementation-of-school-based-feeding-program-for-school-years-2017-2022

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