San Fernando City, La Union- In celebration of the National Correctional Consciousness Week (NACOCOW) of the Regional Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (RBJMP1), Nutrition Officer I Gretchen J. Nisperos of National Nutrition Council Region 1 acted as a resource person on Food Handling and Management during the kick off activities conducted last October 22, 2014 at Camp Florendo, Parian, San Fernando City.

The activity was highlighted with a cooking competition dubbed as “Master Mess Officer Season II” which was participated by 20 wardens and mess officers of the region. Ms. Nisperos served as chairperson of the board of judges. The winning recipes were: Inabraw of Agoo Municipal Jail (Champion), Mush-Ampalaya Dinengdeng of Badoc Municipal Jail (First Runner Up), and Squash- Malunggay Patties of Naguilian Municipal Jail (Second Runner Up).

The cooking contest also served as avenue towards food innovations that would cater and sustain the nutritional well-being of the inmates considering the very limited budget allocation per day for each individual.

Relative to the celebration, NO I Nisperos emphasized the importance of food safety and proper food handling and management to protect the nutritional well-being of the inmates.

Senior Inspector Clifford Jay F. Calanoga, Chief of Inmates and Welfare Development believes that much is still needed to improve and scale up their jail messing system region wide.