The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) sponsored a national conference to strengthen the implementation of the agency’s Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP).

Held on December 2 to 5 in Mandaue City, Cebu, the conference aimed to update the feeding menu to ensure access to learning meal options and improve the implementation of the agency’s feeding program.

The 3-day conference was attended by 160 participants, composed of nutritionist dieticians, technical staff, and focal persons across all regions in the country, including the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

According to Program Management Bureau (PMB) Director Edmon Monteverde, the activity served as a vital platform to capacitate program implementers in order to achieve the government’s goal of eradicating hunger and malnutrition.

“Some of the regions are already closing the current cycle implementation. We want to give them a venue to equip them with stress management and techniques to ensure they can still deliver good service and build relationships with partners come 2025,” Director Monteverde said in his message.

DSWD Field Office-7 Regional Director Shalaine Marie Lucero said the SFP implementers must also prioritize their mental health to render quality service to the program’s beneficiaries.

“We know that we have critical targets in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) – good outcomes on the nutritional status of our beneficiaries, but this will only happen when children have access to good nutrition and healthy menu options. As you keep your focus on our goals, do not forget to take care of yourselves by taking time to prioritize your mental health and manage your stress with the help of this very first conference for SFP staff,” Director Lucero told the participants.

One of the highlights of the conference was a presentation from the Department of Science and Technology—Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) which discussed how SFP implementers can develop, modify, enhance, and plan their menu using available local resources and technologies crafted by and anchored based on the latest calendar of the DOST-FNRI.

United Nations-World Food Programme (UN-WFP) officers Toshio Murakami and Vasundhara Bijalwan discussed the School Meal Plus Tool, an innovation of the WFP that can be used by SFP implementers to create affordable, nutritious, and local meals for children at school. This technology-based platform will guide implementers to craft a menu for the next cycle of the agency feeding program, which targets pre-school children enrolled in daycare centers.

Nutrition Officer Ellen Ruth Abella of the Tutok Kainan of the National Nutrition Council (NCC) provided an overview of the menu crafted to complement the dietary supplementation of the First 1000 days of life or the period of pregnancy to the first two years of life to contribute to the prevention of stunting among infants and young children.

The Food Safety and Hygiene Academy of the Philippines (FoodSHAP) introduced the Food Safety Standards and Food Safety Home, which must be observed well in preparing food and milk for beneficiaries.

Nearing its 15th year of implementation, the SFP remains one of the DSWD’s vital programs that help combat hunger and malnutrition among children aged 2 to 5 enrolled in child development centers by providing hot meals and milk for 120 feeding days to address the incidence of malnutrition among pre-schoolers.

Based on the current academic year, the SFP has already served 2,020,927 beneficiaries in child development centers in 1,573 local government units (LGUs) in the country. (AKDL)