Seventy children have completed a nutrition program in Barangay Dalandanan, Valenzuela City under a project initiated by food company CDO Foodsphere Inc. in partnership with Friends of Win Organization.
This has brought to 17,689 children the total beneficiaries of Gabay Nutrisyon, a 90-day supplemental feeding program undertaken by Odyssey Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of CDO Foodsphere since 2005 with the support of United Laboratories and other partners.
Malnutrition is one of the leading causes of death among children under five years old. Three million children die each year globally because of malnutrition, according to studies.
The Food and Nutrition Research Institute reported that 33 percent of Filipino children less than five years of age face chronic malnutrition. FNRI encourages early intervention to prevent the growing number of undernourished children.
In response to the call of mitigating hunger among Filipino children, CDO Foodsphere through Odyssey Foundation formed Gabay Nutrisyon, a community-based supplemental feeding program which started in June 2005.
“Urgent interventions are needed to reverse the health condition of those Filipino children. And a directly administered and closely monitored feeding program such as what we do in ‘Gabay Nutrisyon’ brings the needed results,” said Jerome Ong, president of CDO Foodsphere and Odyssey Foundation.
Gabay Nutrisyon provides nutritious heavy meals and vitamins for 90 days to malnourished and severely underweight children to restore their health. It started in Barangay Paso de Blas where CDO Foodsphere’s plant is located. It was then a 64-day feeding catering to 150 children.
Through the help of community volunteers and partners, the kids were served heavy snacks and vitamin supplements. Nutritious meals were prepared by CDO canteen personnel and delivered to the community by OFI staff. Monthly weighing of the children beneficiaries was conducted to measure the impact of the program.
Aside from food-related problems such as hunger and malnutrition, Gabay Nutrisyon also looks into the health profile of the family of the participants as well as the social aspect of the malnutrition problem.
It engages the whole community—from children to their mothers, who need to be educated about the importance of good nutrition. The preparation of food is done by community members and volunteers, supervised and monitored by barangay health workers.
The program has been replicated in other barangays throughout Valenzuela City and parts of the National Capital Region, Central Luzon, Bicol Region, Batangas and Cagayan.
Being home to CDO Foodsphere, most of the feeding programs were conducted in Valenzuela City with the strong support of then mayor and now senator-elect Sherwin Gatchalian. OFI has already implemented 25 batches of Gabay Nutrisyon.
The most recent one was held in Barangay Dalandanan in Valenzuela City in partnership with Friends of Win organization.
“It is our company’s humble means of giving back to the communities where children are experiencing hunger the most. For the coming years, it will be our commitment to join in this advocacy of eradicating children malnutrition in our society,” said Ong.
With the support of CDO Foodsphere, Odyssey Foundation said it would continue to conduct Gabay Nutrisyon in communities where children malnutrition is evident.
OFI is developing other nutrition program intervention to answer the call of preventing malnutrition among children through networking and collaborating with other social welfare agencies and humanitarian organizations that share the same mission of bringing children back to health.
