Department of Education Region III Division of Maligaya SAN JOSE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL San Jose

SOPAS PARA SA MARKANG MATAAS

A Proposed School Feeding Program for the Alleviation of Malnutrition Among Grade School Students of San Jose Elementary School

Ms. Elizabeth M. Domantay October 15, 2011

Introduction
Nutrition has a big role in the development of a childs mental and physical growth. It is vital and crucial especially for those who are studying for it can affect their ability to learn and their wellbeing in the later stages of their lives. Various studies have already proven, medically and scientifically, that a well fed student has more potential to success than the undernourished one. When we say well fed we mean a diet that is balanced and nutritious that is given regularly. A well nourished child is more emotionally stable, able to focus more, can recall lectures better and has a higher immunity against diseases. But sad to say, our current scenario our poverty mostly dictates what we eat and when we should eat. Here in San Jose, a district of Maligaya, poverty is the number one culprit why we have malnutrition. A huge section of our students lies under the poverty line who live their life fighting against hunger. Malnutrition is common to our children who belong to poor families. They came to school without taking their meal or they are absent because of illness that were brought by poor nutrition. It is saddening enough that because of food they couldnt give their best potentials in their class. Their performances are usually poor and below average even lots of efforts of teaching were made. Recent findings in this field revealed that malnutrition at an early stage has adverse effect on the functions of brain. The brain loses its flexibility to think, analyze, innovate and remember due to malnutrition. That is why there are some students that are not performing well. The fresh findings left us an encouraging implication to fight malnutrition. We, in San Jose Elementary School took steps to curve this crisis. After some consultations and meetings with the PTA, we come up to a project that we believe somehow can alleviate even in small ways the effect of malnutrition on our students. We agreed to stage SOPAS PARA SA MARKANG MATAAS School Feeding Program. This is a school feeding program that hopefully will become successful and will be participated and supported not only by us but also by our Local Government Units (LGUs) and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Background of San Jose Elementary School San Jose Elementary School is under the Division of Maligaya. It has a total of 1,500 populations of students and 35 permanent teachers. Ten percent (10%) of its population is suffering from malnutrition. Five (5) teachers are on maternity leave. Two (2) has availed a scholarship grants to obtain a masteral degree. Three (3) of the teachers is applying for work abroad. It has no janitor that is taking charged of the cleanliness and orderliness in the school building. It has no security personnel that ensure the safety of the pupils and teachers from danger that might happen during and after class-hour. The building is already dilapidated with poor ventilation that requires major repair. The MPS ( Main Percentage Score) English 60.08 %; Science 53.22 %; Mathematics 54.65 %. Page | 2

Overview of SOPAS PARA SA MARKANG MATAAS - School Feeding Program In our School Feeding Program (SPF) Project SOPAS PARA SA MARKANG MATAAS, we aim to nourish the qualified students of San Jose Elementary School by providing them delicious and nutritious sopas every morning during schooldays. The project will run for five (5) months and will continue up to the end of the school year if it will become successful. In order to measure its progress and success, Objectives and guidelines will be created to serve as our evaluation tool for the program during the end of the five (5) month trial. We planned to launch the program on the first week of the month of July SY 2012-2013. Objectives of SOPAS PARA SA MARKANG MATAAS as a School Feeding Program Alleviate short-term hunger, thereby increasing learning capacity Improve nutritional status, thereby increasing learning capacity Improve micronutrient status Increase enrolment / attendance and decrease the number of students missing class.

PROJECT

BUDGET PROPOSAL

School Feeding Program (10 months) Building Renovation 2 Maintenance Personnel 2 Security Personnel

400,000.00 2,000,000.00 120,000.00 132,000.00

Recommendation:
Designing the program SOPAS PARA SA MARKANG MATAAS involves much planning and careful consideration of a number of factors. Prior to designing the said program, it is suggested to gather as much information as possible on the target community which are the family of the malnourished students of San Jose Elementary School, as this will greatly impact the success of the project. In addition, collaboration with local and national governments, school officials, teachers, parents and students is vital throughout all stages of the project.

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Evaluation:
There is much evidence to suggest that school feeding programs increase enrollment and attendance in school. Food can act as a strong incentive for children to attend school on a regular basis. Poor families benefit from this, as parents may feel they do not have to spend as much on food. Often, students even at young age are not encouraged to attend school due to that they are needed to provide valuable labour and contribute to the household. However, in implementing the program, caution is needed to ensure that the food/meal is additive rather than subtractive. If the family subtracts previously provided food from the childs diet due to the provision of food in school, many of the benefits of the provision are lost.

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