The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) sponsored a national conference aimed at strengthening the implementation of the agency’s Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP).
Held from December 2 to December 5 in Mandaue City, Cebu, the conference focused on updating the feeding menu to ensure access to learning meal options and enhancing the implementation of the agency’s feeding program.
The three-day event was attended by 160 participants, including nutritionist dieticians, technical staff, and focal persons from all regions of the country, as well as representatives from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Edmon Monteverde, DSWD’s Program Management Bureau director, stated that the conference served as a vital platform to empower program implementers in achieving the government’s goal of eradicating hunger and malnutrition.
“Some of the regions are already closing the current cycle implementation. We want to give them a venue to equip them with stress management techniques to ensure they can still deliver good service and build relationships with partners come 2025,” he said.
DSWD Field Office-7 Regional Director Shalaine Marie Lucero emphasized that SFP implementers must prioritize their mental health to provide quality service to the program’s beneficiaries.
“We know that we have critical targets in the General Appropriations Act (GAA)—good outcomes on the nutritional status of our beneficiaries—but this will only happen when children have access to good nutrition and healthy menu options. As you keep your focus on our goals, do not forget to take care of yourselves by prioritizing your mental health and managing your stress with the help of this very first conference for SFP staff,” Director Lucero said.
One highlight of the conference was a presentation by the Department of Science and Technology’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI), which discussed how SFP implementers can develop, modify, enhance, and plan their menu using available local resources and technologies based on the latest DOST-FNRI calendar.
As it approaches its 15th year of implementation, the SFP remains one of DSWD’s vital programs that help combat hunger and malnutrition among children aged two to five enrolled in child development centers. The program provides hot meals and milk for 120 feeding days to address malnutrition among preschoolers.
In the current academic year, the SFP has already served 2,020,927 beneficiaries in child development centers across 1,573 local government units in the country.
