A total of 184,631 day care children in the CALABARZON Region are being served by the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Supplementary Feeding Program for the School Year 2015-2016. These children are from 3,883 day care centers across 114 cities and municipalities in the region.

Besides day care children, there are also 5,957 children in 159 Supervised Neighborhood Plays covered by this program.

The SFP is part of the DSWD’s contribution to the Early Childhood Care and Development program that provides food in addition to the regular meals to two to five-year-old children currently enrolled in day care or supervised neighborhood play. This feeding program, managed by the beneficiaries’ parents, aims to improve and sustain the nutritional status of the beneficiaries through the provision of hot meals for 120 days.

As of this time of reporting, a total of Php297,317,280 funds were downloaded to the 114 local government units (LGUs) who are facilitating the implementation of the SFP through their respective local social welfare and development offices.

Of the 114 LGUs, 22 are already starting with the implementation while the rest are undergoing preparation for the start of the feeding sessions this August.

Of the said day care and supervised neighborhood play child-beneficiaries, 45,232 are from 21 LGUs in Cavite, 37,278 are from 25 LGUs in Laguna, 39,136 are from 25 LGUs in Batangas, 41,004 are from 14 LGUs in Rizal and 27,938 are from 27 LGUs in Quezon.

The DSWD Field Office IV-A continuously provides technical assistance to the LGUs, particularly day care workers, in the implementation of the SFP. From July to September 2015, the Field Office is conducting various trainings for day care workers such as the World Health Organization’s Child Growth Standard cum Promotion on Good Nutrition and Food Safety Training.#