The National Nutrition Council -NCR conducted field visits in the cities of Caloocan and Navotas on November 3, 2021 and the municipality of Pateros on November 4 through its Provincial Nutrition Focal Point Ms. Diana Jean A. Umali. PNFP Umali visited the three (3) areas to assess their readiness in the implementation of the Phase 1 Tutok Kainan Dietary Supplementation Program (TK-DSP) for pregnant women.
During the field visits, PNFP Umali had a courtesy call with Mayor Miguel “Ike” Ponce III of Pateros, and City Health Officer Dr. Christia Padolina and Asst. City Health Officer Dr. Liberty Domingo of Navotas City. She also had the opportunity to meet the focal nutritionist-dietitians for the TK-DSP namely, Ms. Tess Abando and Ms. Christine Guamos (Caloocan City); Ms. Ren Dela Rosa, Ms. Hershey Martin, and Mr. Jeremiah Daradal (Navotas City); and Ms. Meizl Sincuya (Pateros) to discuss updates and concerns on the upcoming implementation of TK-DSP.
The TK-DSP is the National Nutrition Council’s response to COVID-19 pandemic aimed at reducing hunger and prevent stunting in children during their first two years of life. TK-DSP has four (4) phases and NCR is included in Phase 1 and 4 which target pregnant women and children 6-23 months old, respectively. Priority consideration is given to those who are nutritionally at-risk or undernourished. The four (4) TK-DSP Phase 1 areas in Metro Manila are the cities of Caloocan, Navotas, and Parañaque and the municipality of Pateros.
The TK-DSP Phase 1 involves the supplementary feeding among pregnant women for 90 days to help improve their nutritional status and ensure that they will give birth to well-nourished babies. The supplementary feeding for pregnant women includes nutribuns (1st month), hot meals with iron-fortified rice (2nd month), and nutribuns with lipid nutrition supplement paste-small quantity (LNS-SQ). A total of 616 pregnant women from the four (4) LGUs are enrolled in this program.
Phase 4 of the TK-DSP will be implemented in Pateros in December, with 100 children 6-23 months who are nutritionally at-risk or undernourished as beneficiaries. They will be given complementary food for 180 calendar days.
The TK-DSP Phase 1 in NCR was launched on March 8, 2021 in Pateros which also marked the start of the distribution of nutribuns in the municipality and a week after in Caloocan City. However, the program was temporarily put on hold on March 22, 2021 due to the surge of COVID-19 cases. Now that the government has declared NCR under general community quarantine (GCQ) Level 2 starting November 5, the TK-DSP Phase 1 will resume its implementation on December 2021 to cover all the 4 target areas.
Written by:
PFNP Diana Jean A. Umali and RNPC Milagros Elisa V. Federizo
References:
- Pardo, J. A. P., Rivas, T.A. and Federizo, M.E.V. (2021, March 22) Tutok Kainan: Preventing stunting during the first 1000 days. NNC-NCR Webpage: https://nnc.gov.ph/regional-offices/luzon/national-capital-region/4935-tutok-kainan-preventing-stunting-during-the-first-1000-days
- Guidelines on the Early Childhood Care and Development in the First 1000 Days (ECCD F1K) Program in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic and related emergencies
