Tasked with helping our constituents meet their nutritional or dietary needs, Bayambang’s Municipal Nutrition Committee sees to it that everything is based on a solid plan and the implementation is well-executed, followed by close monitoring and evaluation to ensure a sustainable strategy.

Foremost, there is the three-year Local Nutrition Action Plan upon which are anchored all the various local programs, projects and activities that were set out to do within three years.

The program for pregnant women called the 90-Day Dietary Supplementation Program for Pregnant was continued by the Bayambang MNC (adopted from NNC) in which nutritionally at- risk pregnant women were given fresh milk, eggs, iodized salt, biscuits and fruits for ninety (90) days. Notably, the LGU was able to win the DOH’s Healthy Pilipinas Award in the Nutrition Category because of its DSP implementation in CY 2021.

The Infant and Young Child Feeding Program focused on breastfeeding and complementary feeding, with emphasis on educating mothers or caregivers through relevant forums. In this program, aside from teaching mothers about breastfeeding and conducting complementary feeding, there is also the conduct of ECCD Checklist Child Developmental Milestone Assessment, so the LGU also trained the BNS in coordination with the National Nutrition Council through our office to assess the developmental milestones of children aged 0-2 years old. Checklists were given to assess when a child has a developmental delay, so he or she can be referred to doctors and outside specialists if needed.

The MNC diligently implement the Operation Timbang Plus in coordination with the Rural Health Units to assess how many are malnourished, how many are underserved, what part of the town they live, etc. This way, the MNC are able to build an important database.

Through the initiative of the Nutrition Office, the scales used in the 77 barangays of Bayambang are also given free weight calibration via DOST annually, to ensure correct weight data. It was only in the year 2020 that the barangay shouldered the funding for calibration because that is included in their Barangay Nutrition Action Plans.

This is to make sure that the scales used in the barangay are not broken because it can cause false positive results in malnutrition. The LGU, through NNC grants, not only ensure that the scales are in order but also the tools for obtaining length and height by providing 77 mounted height boards for the barangays.

Now, those assessed in OPT Plus who are malnourished- underweight, stunted and wasted, we enrolled them in the Routine Dietary Supplementation Program for 6-59-month children for 3 months to rehabilitate them. This is the regular feeding program for malnourished children. In 2019, even before the Covid-19 pandemic, the MNC has given them food packs which included vegetables, fruits, eggs, bread, oil, sugar, iron-fortified rice, and biscuits. In 2020, a lot of fresh supplies from the farmers with the help of MDRRMO funds were given and even helped the farmers.

At the same time, as food packs were given to malnourished children, multivitamins were also available to those children assessed but were not part of the feeding activities.

There is also a supplemental feeding activity yearly during the Komprehensibong Serbisyo sa Bayan, wherein all the services of the munisipyo are being given in the barangays in various districts. The Nutrition Office gives out fresh fruits and eggs door-to-door to pre-assessed malnourished children.

MNC also conducts monitoring of bakeries and retail stores selling fortified products, checking if all bakeries are using vitamin A-fortified flour and if retail stores are selling iodized salt and vitamin A-fortified cooking oil. Retail store owners are being encouraged to follow the Municipal Ordinance No. 2, series of 2020, which mandates the use and sale of fortified products for consumers’ well-being. This is also in line with the Food Fortification Act or RA 8976.

The Nutrition Office is also involved in monitoring backyard gardens in households especially among the target beneficiaries, with the help of our Municipal Agriculture Office. To ensure sustainability, the LGU provides gardening inputs in the Municipal Greenhouse managed by MAO.

The MNC also conducts monitoring of school nutrition programs, specifically whether nutritious options are served in the school canteens.

When it comes to capacity building, the MNC provides nutrition workers with various basic training courses like BNS Basic Course, e-OPT Plus Trainings, CGS, ECCD Card Refresher Trainings, ECCD F1K Phase1-3 Trainings, DOST-Pinoy Trainings, and Nutrition Early Warning System Trainings– all these to capacitate them, from the proper weighing of a baby to how to counsel a mother, how to assess a pregnant woman's child, etc. Because of this, the various PPAs from the national government can be easily implemented in the barangays.

Speaking of equipping the Barangay Nutrition Scholars, the MNAO is the office they directly report to and assess their performances based on their accomplishment reports. It should be noted that in 2016 the number of BNS was less than 20, but since the Mayor took office, he made sure that there would be a BNS in every barangay because, as he put it, “THEY ARE YOUR FOCAL PERSON IN THE BARANGAY,”Here in Bayambang, they are given an additional honorarium, aside from the honorarium they receive from the barangay. Through the Municipal Nutrition Committee, they are also annually given additional honorarium from the LGU based on their performance.

Aside from monitoring the BNS, the MNC also monitors the Barangay Nutrition Action Plan of each barangay. After the passing of Municipal Ordinance No. 2 series of 2020, it was determined that each barangay should have a budget allocation for the implementation of their local nutrition programs. It used to be that nutrition funding was allocated only by the municipal government, but since CY 2020, almost every barangay has earmarked some funding for nutrition programs.

The MNC is also involved in surveys and in coordinating researches such as the FNRI-DOST surveys, as well as the conduct of Nutrition Early Warning System surveys to minimize the hunger and malnutrition during specific quarters for planning purposes.

Also, there is a conduct of Nutrition Month celebration–a banner project to disseminate various nutrition concerns annually with set of various creative activities for the whole month whose main goal is to educate people and raise public awareness on proper nutrition.

The foregoing sums up everything the Bayambang Municipal Nutrition Committee does from pregnancy until the child grows up, to coordinating all the support that can be obtained from the barangay and the community, just to realize and ensure Total Quality Service for our constituents in our area of concern, proper nutrition.

By: Municipal Nutrition Committee of Bayambang, Pangasinan