DepEd: Noodles Program Above Board, Nutritious
The Department of Education said today that the noodles used in feeding school children who experience hunger while in school are highly nutritious and were procured strictly in accordance with government regulations.
Education Undersecretary Ted C. Sangil, Jr., said the nutritional content of the noodles has been certified to contain vitamins and minerals by SGS Phil Inc., a BFAD accredited laboratory and a member of Societe Generale de Surveillance, an international company that provides inspection, verification, testing and certification services of goods. The results were validated by BFAD.
The feeding program using fortified instant noodles is implemented by DepEd to address the nutritional needs of school children and is part of the hunger mitigation initiatives of the government in 13 food-poor provinces. Fortified instant noodles are provided daily to 373,440 pre-school and grade I pupils for 104 feeding days this year. This represents a 30 percent increase from previous years’ 80 days of feeding the children in the schools.
The cost of commercial noodles is P8.00-9.00 for 45-55 grams, while the DepEd noodles cost P17.86 for 100 grams. “That is good for two servings and thus, the cost per serving is equivalent to P8.93,” Sangil pointed out.
Sangil added that it is unfair to compare the commercial noodles which can be bought at any neighborhood store and the procured noodles which are especially formulated to meet the nutritional needs of the learners. The noodles for the feeding program are delivered directly to the beneficiaries. The cost for freight and handling to the DepEd district offices and overhead cost must also be considered. The school beneficiaries are mostly located in island municipalities and food-poor provinces in Visayas and Mindanao.
Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary Thelma Santos of DepEd Health and Nutrition Office stressed that the noodles are specially made to contain protein, vitamins and minerals including Vitamin A, iron, malunggay powder and eggs. Result of analysis done by SGS Philippines Inc., showed that every pack of noodles – 100 grams good for two (2) servings- provides 432 calories, 14.4 grams protein, 56 grams carbohydrates, 279 ug Retinol Equivalent Vitamin A and 9.7 mg Iron.
She added that the school feeding program is one of the major strategies in the Philippines Plan of Action for Nutrition to improve nutritional levels of children. Hence, the National Nutrition Council, an attached agency of the Department of Health fully supports DepEd’s School Nutrition Program, and closely monitors the implementation of the Accelerated Hunger Mitigation Program and other nutrition initiatives of the government.
A Technical Working Group, composed of officials from DOH-NNC, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Agriculture, National Food Authority and DepEd, meets every month to discuss program operations including food commodities to be used for feeding in daycare centers and public elementary schools in food-poorest provinces.
The school feeding program has been one of the government’s most successful education and hunger mitigation initiatives. The feeding program which started in 1996 has resulted to increased enrollment, improved school attendance and reduced drop-out rate. “Let me add that the school feeding has decreased the percentage of undernutrition from 22% to 16% in 2008,” Santos noted.
Grades 1 and 2 are the most critical years in basic education as these are where drop-outs are very pronounced.
“We are talking here of children who cannot comprehend lessons if their stomachs are grumbling especially if they come to class after walking for hours to go to school. So we made sure that the noodles are easy to prepare, served hot and contain the necessary nutritive requirements for a growing child,“ Sangil explained.
It was earlier reported that the noodles used for the feeding program were overpriced and do not contain vitamins and minerals. The source of information was Kolonwel Trading, a prospective bidder who bought bid documents but did not actually join the bidding. Kolonwel Trading used to bid for school furniture and books at DepEd but is not known as a noodles manufacturer or supplier.
Sangil said the procurement process was in accordance with RA 9184 and its implementing rules and regulations.
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