During emergency situations such as the COVID-19 outbreak, children under five years old are more susceptible to infection and would even lead to death because of their weak immune system. With this reason, the Local Government Unit of Dipolog City prioritized the needs of the families with stunted, wasted and underweight pre-school children following the National Nutrition Cluster Advisory No. 1, Messages #2 and #4; prioritizing and providing assistance to families with special needs and including nutritious food items to the distribution of food packs.
In the implementation of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus access to food, transportation, health care services and other necessities have been limited to the areas within Zamboanga Peninsula. Because of this, Local Government Units (LGUs) need to step-up and extend help to families by distributing food packs and other basic necessities for their daily survival. Dipolog City is one of the LGUs that distributed food packs to all households and prioritized families with special needs as well as with undernourished pre-school children.
Dipolog City distributed relief goods on the first and second week of April to 30, 000 households. These food packs consist of 5 kilos of rice, sardines, noodles, coffee, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, corned beef, beef loaf, and spaghetti with spaghetti sauce. In addition to these relief goods, the LGU in coordination with the City Nutrition Committee through the City Nutrition Office, also distributed on the third week of April additional food packs with multivitamins and Nutri-booster cereals for kids, vegetables, and whole grain oats for families with underweight, stunted and pre-school children to supplement the children’s nutrient needs. These healthy food packs are distributed door-to door by the nutrition office staff together with the Barangay Nutrition Scholars and Barangay Health Workers following the ECQ guidelines.
Amidst this COVID-19 pandemic, health and nutrition well-being of people with special needs: infant, children, pregnant, breastfeeding mothers, older person, disabled persons, indigenous people and those with debilitating health condition should not be compromised. Dipolog City serve as a role model to other LGUs in serving the community and prioritizing the nutritional health of its citizens especially the vulnerable groups. Through the continued efforts of the City Nutrition Committee, in times like this the nutritional status of the under-five children will not aggravate or worsen.
NO I Angelica O. Pajulas
