Hailed as the “City of Pines” and the melting pot of different peoples and cultures in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Baguio City is the center of education, trade and commerce in the region. It continues to attract tourist on a year-round basis mainly due to its cool climate, not reaching above 26 degrees centigrade even as the lowland areas are searing with their 35 degrees temperature. It also lures many families to seek employment and engage in small business in the city, thus the ethnicity of the population is not established as it caters to varied people, from all walks of life.

 

The City Nutrition Committee is composed of 22-member agencies and organizations, with their nutrition programs and projects supported by city ordinances passed in 2017. Their nutrition program implementation is strengthened with the presence of City Nutrition Office with 14 full time nutrition staff as Nutrition Coordinators supervising 253 nutrition volunteers composed of the Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNSs) and Barangay Nutrition Action Officers (BNAOs), as well as providing technical assistance to barangay nutrition committees in the spirit of family, teamwork and fun.

 

The population is very fluid but with the presence of Barangay Nutrition volunteers in all the barangays, new migrants are identified and where there are children, they are registered in the nutrition masterlist. The city is small having an area of 57.49 square kilometers catering to 128 barangays. The support of the city and barangay leaders is laudable as they recognize and appreciate the well-being benefits from attending to the health and nutrition of their constituents, with the institutionalization of yearly nutrition action planning and performance implementation reviews (PIR). Programs and projects are funded assuring their support and implementation of the Philippine Plan of Action on Nutrition (PPAN) at their level.

Highlights of accomplishments and initiatives include the following:

“Duyan ng Pagmamahal” where it was participated by all volunteers, staff and even the Executive Director of the NNC, Assistant Secretary of Health Maria Bernardita Flores and Regional NNC staff. It captured the love, dedication and services rendered by nutrition workers to their clients. The musical video aims to promote the activities under the PPAN featuring the different programs and services provided by the city’s nutrition workers with love, compassion and commitment.

Sustained Local Salt Iodization Program: The presence of Barangay Salt Monitoring Task Force and availability of a salt iodization machine obtained by the city through the DOST-UNICEF Project to strictly monitor the entry of non-iodized salt   into the city.

Continuing Recognition System: For the continued and dedicated service of the volunteers, the city recognizes them in a fitting program with Plaques and Certificates of Appreciation as well as cash and tokens and dubbed as : “Panagdayaw, Panagyaman ti Serbisyo Local!”.

The efficient implementation of nutrition program in the City paved the way to reduced malnutrition prevalence from 1.5% in 2015 to 0.9% in 2017 (underweight and severely underweight preschool children; 6.4% in 2015 to 3.3% in 2017 (stunted and severely stunted preschool children); and 1.9% in 2015 to 0.6% in 2017 (wasted and severely wasted preschool children).

All these for the motto: “Growing stronger, getting deeper involvement, reaching higher grounds and moving forward tomorrow for a healthier Baguio!”