QUEZON City Mayor Herbert Bautista has signed a measure institutionalizing the giving of awards to the healthiest public-school canteens.
He backed City Ordinance 2594 of 2017 authored by Councilors Julienne Alyson Rae Medina of District 5 and Irene Belmonte of District 4 seeks to acknowledge public school canteens that offer the healthiest food choices for students.
The city government shall recognize public elementary and secondary schools with the “healthy” school cafeterias, he said.
The healthiest public-school cafeterias will be given cash rewards, he added.
To be able to receive the healthiest public-school canteens award, the school must score at least 80 percent of the overall rating based on the criteria in the ruling provided by the city council, such as the securing of sanitary and health permits, good grooming and personal hygiene of canteen personnel, adherence to food safety and proper waste management.
The school with the highest rating will receive a P10,000 cash award to be utilized for the promotion of student health, refurbishing of the school canteen, and procurement of equipment and supplies for the canteen’s improvement.
Meanwhile, Bautista said Quezon City continues to lead other local government units in the number of beneficiaries of the city government’s Philippine Health Insurance Corp.
Based on a report submitted by the city’s social services development department, Quezon City has been consistently registering an annual enrollment rating of nearly 100 percent which is way past some of the enrollment ratings posted by other local government units participating in PhilHealth’s sponsored program.
The city government, on orders of Mayor Herbert Bautista, has been sponsoring the PhilHealth enrollment of some 50,000 underprivileged families to provide indigent residents access to quality medical and health-care services.
Given an enrollment rate of P2,400 per family, at least P120 million has been allocated by the city government to cover the PhilHealth of the beneficiaries, including tricycle drivers, barangay officials, solo parents, persons with disabilities, city hall contractual employees, children in conflict with the law, street sweepers and even young mothers who are beneficiaries of the “gabayan ang batang ina” program.
