CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Close to 5,000 malnourished children benefited from the milk feeding program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and National Dairy Authority (NDA) in Region 10 (Northern Mindanao).
DWSD-10 OIC Assistant Director Zosimo G. Butil said Wednesday more than PHP10 million was allocated for the milk feeding of 4,805 identified malnourished children in Iligan and Cagayan de Oro cities with 1,914 and 2,891 beneficiaries, respectively.
Butil said DSWD-10 signed a memorandum of agreement with NDA-10 for the fund allocation of PHP10,955,400.
The NDA-10, he said, was the lead agency that sourced milk from local dairy producers in Northern Mindanao.
Meanwhile, Jennifer Hora of the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO), in an earlier report, said the milk feeding program aims to rehabilitate underweight and severely underweight children ages 3-4 years old enrolled in child development centers and supervised neighborhood plays.
The malnourished children were allocated 200 milliliters of fresh milk daily for 60 days, on a twice-a-day feeding scheme.
The milk feeding, which ran for eight weeks from May 5 to June 25, was implemented by the CSWDO with funds from DSWD-10 through the Bayanihan Act 2.
Aside from boosting the government's efforts to combat malnutrition, milk supplementation also seeks to support the local dairy industry.
CSWDO field officers in the two cities were tasked to collect data on the post nutritional status of the milk feeding program beneficiaries. (PNA)
