Two local governments and an individual entry from the Cordillera landed as one of the honorees in the different categories during the awarding ceremonies of the National Nutrition Council, which will be held at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City on Dec. 12.
Rita Papey of NNC-CAR said Baguio City has two entries while Alfonso Lista, Ifugao was able to maintain its consistency in being one of the outstanding winners in nutrition for the year.
Baguio achieved its first year Consistent Regional Oustanding Winner on Nutrition (CROWN) award while Imelda Dagupon, a barangay nutrition scholar of Imelda Village, landed in the top eight finalists for the search for outstanding BNS in the country.
Alfonso Lista, Ifugao achieved its second year CROWN maintenance award for this year that will bring them closer to the National Nutrition Honor Award once they are able to maintain their CROWN award next year.
Papey said Alfonso Lista and Baguio City will receive P200,000 and P100,000 respectively for having maintained the respective CROWN awards.
Nutrition committee members of the concerned local governments, headed by their local chief executives, will attend the national awarding ceremonies to be spearheaded by ranking health and nutrition officials with President Rodrigo R. Duterte as the guest of honor and speaker.
The compliance of the concerned local governments was subjected to evaluation and validation of their nutrition programs and projects by the members of the National Nutrition Evaluation Team who, over the past several months, travelled the country to study the nutrition best practices of the adjudged regional finalists.
“We hope that the achievements of the concerned local governments and the individual awardees in terms of nutrition will empower other local governements and nutrition advcates to strive for the best and contribute in improving the nutritional status of people in the countryside and acheve better nutrition data in the future,” Papey said.
Ifugao was able to garner the National Nutrition Award in 2014 with a cash reward of P 1 million after having sustained its CROWN award for three consecutive years, apart from the three years of being adjudged the best nutrition program implementer in the category of provinces which resulted in the elevation of the province in the Hall of Fame award for nutrition.
Papey challenged other local governments units in the region to continue innovating relative to the implementation of their nutrition programs to significantly reduce malnutrition in the countryside, improve the performance of childen in school, and address the prevalence of malnutrition among pre-school and school-aged children.
She underscored the compliance of the local governments to the standards in the implementation of nutrition programs should not only be for reaping awards, but more importantly for the improvement of the nutritional status of their malnourished constituents. –PIO release
