General Santos City Mayor Ronnel C. Rivera has recognized the efforts of Sarangani Energy Corp. in the field of education and health during his recent State of the City Address at the Lagao Gymnasium.
Noting the city government’s direction of focusing on malnutrition in the early childhood education systems, Rivera said the city government would be monitoring the nutrition of children in all daycare centers.
SEC, of the Alsons Power Group, was specially mentioned for opening up two feeding centers or central kitchen facilities in Lozano Elementary and Shuttle Elementary School, both located in General Santos.
“We would like to thank our private partners like the Sarangani Energy Corp. who has also adopted some of our schools and has put up two central kitchens,” the mayor said.
Earlier this year, SEC officials led the groundbreaking for the feeding centers at Shuttle Elementary School in Barangay San Jose, and Lozano Elementary School in Barangay San Jose, both in GenSan.
Although SEC operates mainly in neighboring Sarangani Province, particularly in the town of Maasim, it has extended its focus on education and health to some of the schools and localities in GenSan.
The feeding centers, that come complete with tables, chairs and a central kitchen, were provided by SEC in support of the School-Based Feeding Program organized by the Department of Education.
This program was designed to reduce the incidence of malnutrition in the community, improve education retention thru proper nourishment and reduce absenteeism in school-aged children who do not want to go to school because they do not have anything to eat or those that do not come back after going home to eat lunch.
Alsons Power Group corporate affairs manager Ruben Tungpalan said: “SEC wants to show another way of supporting the communities when it comes to education, that’s why we chose to provide feeding centers to support these schools.”
Last September, more than 50 engineers and employees from SEC came to Rogaya Bajunaid Integrated School to distribute more than 1,500 learning kits to pupils from different schools in Maasim.
The SEC personnel also held inspirational talks with elementary and senior high students focusing on career and life guidance, as well as to help deliver positive messages for the children.
“We shared to them how we got into our profession, what we do in the plant and told them about the sacrifices we had to make when we were still studying to help inspire them to study hard and aim for better grades,” Engr. Seth Seno from Sarangani Energy’s Operations Group shared.
These are all part of the yearly Ayuda Eskwela program of the SEC, the Alsons Power Group and the Conrado and Ladislawa Alcantara Foundation Inc.