Pasig City Nutrition Action Officer (CNAO), Ms. Marissa Almario, shared the city’s good practices in planning and implementing nutrition-sensitive programs during the virtual PPAN Movers’ General Assembly held on February 15, 2022 via Zoom. The general assembly was attended by nutritionist-dietitians from the 17 local government units in Metro Manila.

Nutrition-sensitive programs are non-nutrition programs that are tweaked in their design to produce nutritional outcomes. They address the underlying causes of malnutrition such as inadequate household food security, inadequate care and inadequate health services, and an unhealthy household environment.

Some of the city’s nutrition-sensitive programs featured were  “Gulayan sa Bakuran ni Nanay tungo sa wastong kalusugan”, a home vegetable gardening project targeting nutritionally at-risk pregnant and lactating mothers and families of undernourished children 6-23 months old. All public elementary schools in the city also maintain school vegetable gardens through the “Gulayan sa Paaralan” Project. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, harvested vegetables were used as additional ingredients in the school-based supplementary feeding program.

Pasig City also implemented livelihood trainings participated in by nutritionally-at-risk, low-income families to help them increase family income and improve economic access to food.  

Handwashing and toilet facilities were put up in all public schools as part of the WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) in School Program. Clean as You Go (ClayGo) stations were set up in all public elementary schools and feeding centers/canteens. Left over foods from the stations were recycled and used as fertilizers for the school vegetable gardens.

Routine health services such as immunization and deworming for children, and micronutrient supplementation for pregnant and lactating women, children, and female adolescents are also made available and accessible in all health centers. Integrated in the pre- and post-natal care for mothers are nutrition assessment, diet counseling, film showing, lectures and distribution of nutrition information, education, and communication materials. A lecture on the first 1000 days of life called “Usapang Buntis / Buntis Caravan” was also conducted. In addition, lecture on exclusive breastfeeding is incorporated during pre-marriage counseling sessions.

CNAO Almario emphasized the importance of convergence of programs and services. Nutrition committees at the city and barangay levels must be functional with complete representation of difference agencies.

“The malnutrition problem is multifactorial in nature at dapat ay multisectoral din ang approach,” CNAO Almario said. She added, “Local nutrition action plans should be well formulated and approved by the chair and members of city and barangay nutrition committee”.

CNAO Almario also emphasized the importance of making the local chief executives and other stakeholders ‘nutrition literate’ to get their support.  The local nutrition program coordinators as PPAN Movers are encouraged to continuously advocate for the implementation of nutrition-sensitive programs by tweaking or modifying the program to include nutrition objectives and or making poor families and families with malnourished children as beneficiaries.

Reference: Nutrition Sensitive Programming in the Philippines, accessed through https://www.nnc.gov.ph

Written by: NO I Janna Alexia M. Necio, NO II Theresa A. Rivas and NPC Milagros Elisa V. Federizo