Elementary pupils get free meals in Barangay Hinakpan

By Jennifer Catan-Tilos

Dumaguete City (15 October) — A free meal feeding is set for 400 elementary pupils and parents on October 20 in Barangay Hinakpan, Guihulngan.

The one-time meal feeding for Hinakpan serves as one of the initiatives and efforts of the provincial government of Negros Oriental together with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) as part of the intervention to fight against hunger.

Based on the nutritional status of the school children in the barangay, Project Coordinator of the 6th Country Programme for Children (CPC6), Joy Gongob said the malnutrition is prevalent due to its rocky area and so vegetables and other root crops can hardly grow.

The Provincial Technical Working Group (PTWG) of CPC6 will give milk and prepare meals using available indigenous food materials that will provide at least one-third (1/3) of the recommended daily energy and nutrients intake for children.

Joining this year’s Stand Up and Take Action (SUTA) against poverty campaign and Children’s Month, Gongob said serving meals for free hopefully eases hunger to school children in the barangay.

Also with the creation of the Provincial Anti-Hunger Task Force under executive order no. 09-02, the different government agencies concern is urged to submit each anti-hunger mitigation program to the Governor’s Office for the consolidation and formulation of one provincial anti-hunger mitigation plan.

This is to facilitate and convergence of services and resources to widen reach among the poor and hunger households in the low-income municipalities in the province.

For the Stand Up campaign, it is set on Oct 16, 17 and 18 as its global mobilization of people to demand world leaders to deliver on their promise to end poverty by 2015.

For the fourth year in a row, millions of people around the world will Stand Up and Take Action to show their support for the fight against poverty and for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). (PIA/JCT) [