The National Nutrition Council-Cordillera Administrative Region (NNC-CAR) enjoined all its partners including Local Government Units, Regional Line Agencies, government offices, private sectors, and the general public to celebrate the 48th Nutrition Month.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made a huge negative impact on nutrition such as disruptions in delivering nutrition and related services, and increased hunger incidence but at the same time created a lot of opportunities such as innovations in service delivery, home food production, increased awareness of one’s health and consuming healthy diets, and solidarity amongst people in helping each other. Thus, the theme for this year, ‘‘New normal na nutrisyon, sama-samang gawan ng solusyon”, calls for strengthened nutrition interventions and solidarity towards nutrition improvement as the country shifts towards living with the COVID-19 virus.
The key messages for the 48th Nutrition Month campaign are 1.) Good nutrition is the key to building immunity and supporting recovery. Efforts to preserve and promote proper nutrition must be part of the pandemic resilience strategies; 2.) Promote and adopt health-enhancing nutrition behaviors, including the consumption of sustainable healthy diets; 3.) Call for continued solidarity to support food and nutrition security, especially for the most vulnerable; 4.) Expand multi-sectoral engagements to scale-up nutrition interventions; and 5.) Strengthen leadership and governance in nutrition across all levels to achieve nutritional outcomes of the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition.
In the region, NNC-CAR lined up activities for the Nutrition Month. First, the regional office kicked-off the celebration through a webinar series titled “Nutrisyon, Katuwang sa Pagbangon: Transitioning to a Better New Normal”. The 1st day of the webinar was held on July 1, 2022 while the 2nd day will be held on July 19, 2022. Aside from serving as a kick-off activity, the webinar series also aims to disseminate the theme and the key messages of this year’s Nutrition Month celebration.
NNC-CAR in partnership with the Department of Health-Center for Health Development (DOH-CHD)-CAR also spearheaded the Nutrition Month Regional Launching on July 7, 2022. Said launching started with a motorcade from Upper Session Road going to the Plaza Lodge Baguio in South Drive. The 1st part of the program included the presentation of the Nutrition Month talking points and the schedule of Nutrition Month events as well as the signing of the Pledge of Commitment. Meanwhile, the 2nd part consisted of the Nutrition Month Kapihan/Press Conference and a cooking demonstration from Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics students from Benguet State University.
Two online contests were also launched on NNC-CAR’s Facebook page, namely Cordillera Nutrisong Contest (Season 3) and Tiktok Video Nutri-Challenge. The former, open to Local Nutrition Committees (LNC), aims to increase camaraderie among LNC members and increase awareness among key stakeholders on the nutrition month theme. It is also held as part of the Cordillera Month celebration. On the other hand, the Tiktok Video Nutri-Challenge which is open to the general public aims to parade healthy lifestyle practices of netizens in the new normal.
The month-long celebration will be concluded through a virtual Culminating Activity on July 29, 2022.
BELLA M. BASALONG, OIC-RNPC
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