THE government’s budget for the Department of Education’s School-Based Feeding Program will double from this year’s P5.68 billion to P11.71 billion in 2024.

House Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto said that the program will help not only the students but also local farmers.

Recto said if the proposed P4.1 billion budget for the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Supplementary Feeding Program is added, the total allocation for the government’s child feeding program will reach P15.8 billion next year — a P5 billion jump from this year’s.

“The increase is unprecedented. Never has the budget for child feeding been supersized to this big. On this, the government has put its money where its mouth is,” Recto said.

By his computation, the P15.8. billion will allow the two agencies to serve about 857 million meals to children with nutritional deficiency.

The DepEd will cater to Kindergarten and Grades One to Six learners from indigent families who are wasted and stunted while the DSWD will serve similarly situated three-to-five year olds who are placed in day care and other child development centers.

Recto said the boost in child feeding resources is timely as the rise in food inflation which began during the pandemic has resulted in recent disturbing statistics on child malnutrition.

A government survey in 2021 found one in five schoolchildren ages 5 to 10 were underweight and stunted, and one in 14 wasting. For preschool children ages 3 to 5, one in four was underweight; one in four stunted; and one in 20 wasting.