SAN NARCISO, Quezon – NNC Calabarzon launches the Local Nutrition Early Warning System Food and Nutrition Security (LNEWS-FNS) in San Narcis, Quezon and conducted Consultative Workshop and Trainings for Household Data Collectors and Municipal Core Group. Honorable Mayor Florabelle Uy-Yap willingly accepted the program offered by NNC as she acknowledged their vulnerability to disaster and emergencies and their current nutrition situation. The Municipal Nutrition Committee is hopeful that LNEWS-FNS will help them in preparing for a more comprehensive and nutrition-responsive Municipal Nutrition Action Plan with programs and projects that will address the malnutrition problems in the municipality.

The LNEWS household data collectors will come from the 5 sentinel barangays namely Punta, Villa Reyes, Abuyon, San Juan and Binay. These barangays were selected during the consultative meeting based on the number of 0-59 months children, number of households, malnutrition prevalence, location and accessibility. A total of 15 participants were trained composed of Nurses, Midwives, Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNSs) and Barangay Health Workers (BHWs).

Meanwhile, the LNEWS Municipal Core Group is composed of representatives from MPDO, MDRRMO, MA, BPLO/Municipal Treasury and RHU/health. They were oriented and trained on: LNEWS, PPAN, Food and Nutrition Security, Disaster Risk Reduction for FNS, Establishing Information System for FNS, Software for LNEWS, Developing Plan to Collect Municipal Level Data, Household Survey, Data Analysis and Interpretation and Organizing the LNEWS Team and Communicating Information on FNS.

Both household and municipal teams will have their first data collection on March 2020. MNAO Lyra Pasatiempo assure NNC that she will coordinate the regular conduct of the LNEWS and mobilization of the MNC up to the utilization of the data collected.

LNEWS-FNS is a form of monitoring and analysis of relevant information that aims to establish a system that monitors and detects impending crisis related to food and nutrition insecurity and helps prevent further deterioration of food and nutrition insecurity at the local level.

In Calabarzon, there are three existing LNEWS areas and all are located in the province of Quezon namely in the municipality of Catanuan and Burdeos and city of Lucena. San Narciso, Quezon is the last expansion area in the region.