NutriSapat, Batang Angat

NutriSapat, Batang Angat

The Supplemental Feeding Program— dubbed as “NutriSapat, Batang Angat” — caters to Filipino children who are below the ideal weight for their ages. These identified undernourished children will be registered to be part of the group who will be given supplementary dietary support for 120 days (or four months).

Aside from the provision of dietary supplement for the children, households within the target communities will be educated on how to observe proper nutrition for their families, simple and mindful ways to promote healthy eating habits among their children, and how to sustain their own source of nutritious food through FAITH (Food Always In the Home) gardening – a specific type of backyard gardening.

PBSP takes active participation in the implementation of activities under The Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) 2017-2022 to contribute to the fight against malnutrition among children, through the supplemental feeding program.  This is anchored in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals for promoting Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition. PhilPAN consists of programs that are nutrition-specific, nutrition-sensitive and enabling support programs.

PBSP is implementing this initiative as part of its flagship program to contribute to the reduction of stunted and wasted children under five years of age, from the baseline of 33.4% and 7.1%, respectively to 21.4% and less than 5% in 2022.

Aside from the supplemental feeding, another major component of this program is the backyard gardening which is a complementary intervention at home. Communities especially the parents of the undernourished children will be provided the necessary training and materials to install and maintain their own source of fruits and vegetables within their location.

The main objective of the program is to contribute to the reduction of stunting and wasting among children under five years of age in the Philippines while the specific objectives include:

1. Improve the nutritional status of children under five years of age.
2. Capacitate families to observe and promote healthy eating habits among their children.
3. Promote food security in communities through capacitating the parents to install and manage their own vegetable garden.

In its first year of implementation, PBSP successfully secured a partnership agreement with the Department of Agriculture (DA) to combine efforts and help resolve malnutrition in the country. Through DA’s “Gulayan sa Bakuran” program, target communities will be trained by experts in the field on how to build and manage their own source of nutritious food.

Also, included in DA’s commitment is the provision of resources such as seeds, garden soil, compost and initial garden tool as a start-up package or preliminary gardening production support for all identified beneficiaries.