The Daily Tribune <<< Without Fear or Favor >>>

»HEADLINES

»NATION

Food firm mobilizes support for hunger-free RP

10/26/2008

Meat processing firm CDO Foodsphere Inc. has called on other companies to support a private sector-led campaign for a hunger-free Philippines by helping feed poor and malnourished children.

Odyssey Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of CDO-Foodsphere started a supplemental feeding project three years ago, which has since helped 5,000 previously undernourished kids in Valenzuela City.

One of these beneficiaries, five-year-old Glenda Olivares of Bagbaguin, received her diploma during simple rites last Sept. 27, after undertaking a 64-day Gabay Buhay supplemental feeding program.

Glenda had been an underweight kid prior to joining the program and was among the 180 children comprising the batch 7 of beneficiaries who participated in the project. Like other beneficiaries, Glenda received a clean bill of health, confirming that her weight has been restored to a level considered normal for her age.

Since Odyssey Foundation started its Gabay Buhay supplemental feeding program along with CDO-Foodsphere and other partners in May 2005, more than 5,000 children have graduated from malnutrition.

CDO president Jerome Ong admitted that this figure is just a small fraction of the malnutrition problem in the Philippines.

According to the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), some 3.7 million Filipino preschool children, with ages 0 to 5 years, were underweight as of 2001. Children become underweight when they suffer from acute or present malnutrition.

“However impossible it may seem, we are committed to achieve our vision of hunger-free Philippines. We have taken the first step toward this vision, and we need other groups to walk with us to make it possible,” Ong said.

Ong cited the need for a wholistic approach to combat child malnutrition in the country, referring to a local government and private sector partnership which is considered the key to the sustainable solution of the social problem.

“The success of the supplemental feeding project rests upon the collaboration of the local government officials, particularly those in the nutrition and social welfare sectors, and business groups working together in harmony to address the problem on a national scale,” he added.

Ong said Odyssey Foundation and CDO-Foodsphere can lend support through its proven-effective formula or template on the nutrition advocacy campaign to all interested groups who are willing to duplicate the project in other communities.

Other groups that have already partnered with Odyssey for the project are private firms United Laboratories Inc., Rebisco, Del Monte Philippines, and CCA Group of Companies as well as ABS-CBN Foundation and GMA Kapuso Foundation.

Odyssey Foundation said it is not limiting its assistance to the people of Valenzuela City. Other areas may be considered as long as a trusted and dependable non-government organization can implement the program in their own communities efficiently, it said.

With an accreditation from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Odyssey receives grants, gifts, legacies, donations and financial aids to assist its operations focused on nurturing the health of underweight children in the Philippines.