The Navotas City government has launched a series of programs to obtain a zero malnutrition rate in 2013 as Mayor John Rey Tiangco yesterday hailed the working team from the local nutrition office for the decline in cases of malnutrition.
For a start, Tiangco said a six-month citywide feeding project has been set and is targeted to feed malnourished children in the city’s depressed communities.
He told the Tribune that the city government had appropriated funds for the program which was made possible through coordination with the Sangguniang Panlungsod and Liga ng mga Barangay ng Navotas.
“The program with the City Nutrition Office (CNO) as its frontrunner was launched as part of the local government’s way of observing Nutrition Month,” Tiangco said.
Quoting records from the CNO, the city chief executive noted that provision of adequate food under the program has reduced the number of undernourished children in his city from 1,733 to 1,413.
Tiangco said the malnutrition rate has declined from 4.3 percent to 3.8 percent since last year when an intensified nutrition program was launched all over the city.
He said the nutrition program will be held simultaneously in the city’s 14 villages with the help of the local officials, volunteers and the Barangay Health Centers.
Tiangco cited the work of the city’s nutrition office particularly in depressed areas.
He was also grateful for the support of volunteers and the Sangguniang Kabataan in making the nutrition program successful and effective.
“We are really targeting a zero malnutrition rate by next year and we can do this if all of us will do our share,” Tiangco told city hall officials and employees.
Meanwhile, he announced an “On-the-Spot Art Contest” and seminar-workshop on vegetable gardening to encourage residents to plant and eat vegetables.