SEN. Grace Poe on Thursday gave assurances that poor children will continue to receive free nutritious food this year under the government’s feeding programs.

“Access to quality food and nutrition for everyone, especially the poor, should be part of any overarching plan to combat the pandemic,” she said.

Under the General Appropriations Act of 2021, around P6 billion was allotted for the School-Based Feeding Program to provide undernourished children from Kindergarten to Grade 6 with at least one fortified meal for 120 days a year.

Implemented by the Department of Education, the SBFP is a component of Republic Act 11037 or Masustansyang Pagkain Para sa Batang Pilipino Act, which Poe authored.

Beneficiaries used to receive food rations in schools in the past. But because of the pandemic, the DepEd and local government units now deliver the food packs to the homes of the children or to designated centers to be picked up by their parents or guardians.

Another component of RA 11037 is the Supplementary Feeding Program which was alloted with P3.8 billion budget this year.

The program, implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, provides children aged two to five with one fortified meal for not less than 120 days a year. The food is given in child development centers, daycare centers or in any appropriate facility as determined by the agency.

Priority beneficiaries of this feeding program are children in fourth, fifth and sixth class municipalities and in areas with large populations of undernourished children.

The law has a third component — the Milk Feeding Program — which provides fortified meals and a cycle menu including fresh milk and fresh milk-based food products to address undernutrition.

It is being implemented by the Department of Agriculture, Philippine Carabao Center and the Cooperative Development Agency.

“We know that undernutrition and malnutrition in their own right are killers, even prior to the pandemic,” Poe said.

“We hope we can help deal with the scourge of all forms of hunger and malnutrition through the feeding programs,” she added.