The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is now preparing the nationwide implementation of the Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP) for children in Child Development Centers (CDCs) and Supervised Neighborhood Play (SNP) in time for the June school opening.
More than 1.5 million children in CDCs and SNPs will be provided with hot meals and milk for a period of 120 days from the budget of over Php5.18 billion.
DSWD spokesperson Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao said the SFP provides nutritious hot meals and milk to children 2 to 5 years old in local government unit (LGU)-managed CDCs and SNP, in line with the Department’s support to the Zero Hunger objective of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.
“Nais nating pagbutihin at panatilihin ang nutrisyon ng mga batang Filipino. Yearly, we provide hot meals to the target children beneficiaries to help improve their nutritional status. Isinusulong din natin ang paggamit ng lokal at katutubong pagkain sa nasabing hot meals upang matugunan ang at least 1/3 ng dietary intake ng mga bata,” Asst. Secretary Dumlao said on Wednesday (April 23).
In implementing the program, the children’s weight and height are measured at the start and after the completion of the feeding program and consistently monitored throughout the feeding sessions.
The parents of the children are also involved in the preparation of the meals using affordable, nutritious, and indigenous ingredients.
The program is implemented yearly after it was institutionalized in 2018 by Republic Act No.11037, also known as the “Masustansiyang Pagkain Para sa Batang Pilipino Act.”
In 2024, the SFP served a total of 1,871,165 children nationw