Kalinga benefits from PGMA food-for-school program

By:ggd/PIA Kalinga


Tabuk, Kalinga (2 August) -- The eight municipalities of the Kalinga are among the several poor towns in the country that benefited from the on-going food for school feeding program under the Accelerated Hunger Mitigation Program of the Arroyo Administration.

In an interview with Provincial Social Worker Gretchen Curameng, around 5,427 day care children were identified as target beneficiaries for this year's program implementation.

These she said include the 357 children from Rizal, 320 from Lubuagan, 360 from Tinglayan, 510 from Tanudan, 396 from Pasil, 530 from Balbalan, 1,704 from Tabuk City and 1,250 from Pinukpuk.

According to Curameng, the school for food program aims to provide day care children the needed nutrition to ensure that sufficient and nutritious food are available for them to cope with the physical and mental challenges of going to school. Each beneficiary are provided with one kilo rice per day for 43 days.

Curameng said it is a welcome development that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in her recent State of the Nation Address included Kalinga as one of the provinces targeted for the administration's massive school feeding program.

As recalled, the President mentioned that with the revenues generated from the Value Added Tax (VAT), her administration will be launching a massive school feeding program at P10.00 per child every school day in indigent communities and calamity stricken areas including Kalinga, Apayao and Abra in the Cordillera Region. Through these efforts, poor provinces will be alleviated from the list of provinces with high rate of malnutrition the country.

In a related development, Division Feeding Coordinator Julia Bateg of the Department of Education (DepEd), Kalinga said that recipient districts of the second batch of Food-for-School program in the province just received their rice allocations in coordination with the National Food Authority (NFA).

From the 93 targeted schools from the Districts of Balbalan, Tanudan, Northern Pinukpuk, Southern Pinukpuk and Lubuagan, at least 2,742 pupils benefited during the implementation of the second batch.

Recipients of the first batch covered the Districts of Pasil, Rizal and Tinglayan benefiting at least 1,872 pupils in said areas. Each pupil received one kilo rice each for 19 days and noodles feeding for 35 days.

Said program was made possible through Deped in partnership with the NFA, National Nutrition Council and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). (ggd/PIA-Kalinga)