The Quezon City Nutrition Committee (QCNC) had its first meeting for the year at the Quezon City Health Department Conference Room on March 9, 2015. The meeting was presided by the Officer-in-Charge of the QC Health Department, Dr. Verdades Peña- Linga. Present at the meeting were City Councilor for Health, Hon. EufemioLagumbay, together with the CNC members from the Office of the Vice-Mayor, Quezon City General Hospital, Novaliches District Hospital, Social Welfare Development Office, City Budget Office, Nutrition Foundation of the Philippines, Barangay Operation Center, DILG, City Planning Office, City Agriculturist, PESO, and Quezon City Health Department.

Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Milagros Elisa V. Federizo of the National Nutrition Council – National Capital Region was invited by the QCNC to give an orientation on the Local Nutrition Committee (LNC), its composition and functions and the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN). RNPC Federizo gave an overview of the NNC, its mandates and legal basis. She also presented the nutritional challenges of the city based on the results of the Operation Timbang (OPT) and the priority nutrition actions that can be done anchored on PPAN.

At the meeting, several issues and concerns were identified such as the need to deploy Barangay Nutrition Scholars in barangays, organizing functional barangay nutrition committees (BNCs),the increasing trend in the prevalence of undernutrition and overweight among children, and how to make the QCNC truly functional. Based on discussion,Dr. Peña-Linga and the members of the QCNC identified their priority concerns and outlined their immediate courses of action, foremost of which is to capacity the QCNC in nutrition program management and the conduct of a planning workshop to critically analyze the city’s nutrition situation and formulate their City Nutrition Action Plan (CNAP) for 2015. (MABRM/MEVF/NNCNCR)