Making do, but not without

The next time your child complains about his allowance, tell him that children in public elementary schools are allotted only P15 per meal under the Department of Education’s (DepEd) school-based feeding program (SBFP).

Milet Esguerra, who heads the
STLC feeding program,
interacts with the kids.

“We’re giving a little more per child at the Tabangao Elementary School,” says Milet Esguerra, who heads the feeding program of the Shell Tabangao Ladies Circle (STLC) in Batangas City.  She smiles when I appear shocked, but she’s done her research. 

The DepEd’s SBFP allocates a total of P16 per child (P15 per meal; P1 for logistics like cooking utensils, office supplies for reports, minimal transportation expenses, water, LPG, charcoal, firewood, and kerosene) for 120 days. Even privately-funded feeding programs like Jollibee’s “Busog, Lusog, Talino (BLT)” and Ateneo de Manila University’s “Blueplate” allot P11 and P11.50 per child respectively.

We are at the Tabangao Elementary School for the launch of the STLC feeding program.  With the help of the school, its Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) and Mothers’ Club, the group of wives of Shell Refinery executives are feeding 60 kids three times a week for 15 weeks using funds provided by Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp.

The beneficiaries are students from Grades 1 to 6 whose weight falls below the normal Body Mass Index (BMI) for their respective age levels. They are weighed twice more – midway and at the end of the feeding program – to determine the program’s impact.

The Shell Ladies with (seated third and fourth from left)
Tabangao Elementary School Head Teacher Milagros
Calingasan and DepEd Batangas City West District
Supervisor Dr. Anastacia De Ocampo.

It is the second year that the Shell Ladies are conducting a feeding program.  Member Elenita de Chavez says that only three of the 60 recipients of the feeding program conducted at Libjo Elementary School last year failed to reach “normal” status in terms of weight.  She explains that these children had health problems that went beyond nutrition.

The basic premise behind feeding programs is that better nutrition is a prerequisite to enhanced school performance.

In the words of DepEd Batangas City West District Supervisor Dr. Anastacia De Ocampo, “ang pagkaing pangkatawan na binibigay ng Shell Ladies sa feeding program ay tutulong para makuha ninyo ang pagkaing pangkaisipan na bigay naman ng ating mga guro (The Shell Ladies’ feeding program provides your bodies the nutrients to better absorb the food that the teachers feed your minds).”

Feeding is done every Monday, Wednesday and Friday inside the school by volunteers from Shell Ladies, the school’s PTA and Mothers’ Club.  Aside from providing funds and logistical support, STLC coordinates with the school on area selection, identification of beneficiaries and overall monitoring.  The parent volunteers are a big help.  They buy the ingredients, cook the food, help serve the meals, wash up after the kids are done and clean the serving area.

The meals are simple, but filling and nutritious:  macaroni soup and sandwich, champorado, tortang giniling with rice, pancit bihon with bread,  and ginisang munggo with giniling and rice, among others. The cost per head is kept low by the economies of scale.  Thus, P15 per child is doable, more so the P20 per child allocated by STLC.

“Hindi kailangang maging mahal ang pagkain para maging masustanya (Nutritious food does not need to be expensive),” says De Chavez.

The basic premise behind feeding programs is that children
perform better in school on a full stomach.

Judging by the look on the children’s faces, the food tastes good too. They file into the eating area, shy and hesitant but quick to laugh and smile. It takes a little prodding before some take seconds, but a lot do.

The kids are hungry. Most of them are part of households where the meager budget is stretched to meet the needs of many.  Many go to school without breakfast, and those who do get to eat in the morning, still have room for more.

The kids of Tabangao Elementary School are not among the 40,361 beneficiaries of DepEd’s SBFP program.  But with the help of firms like Shell, the school has found a way to comply with the DepEd directive to help feed a total of 562,262 pupils in 1,010 public elementary schools in 28 provinces who are considered “severely wasted” or malnourished based on a nutritional status report as of August 31, 2012.

The kids’ needs are simple. When asked their favorite food, they answer “gulay (vegetable),”which is not surprising given that it is what they are accustomed to. Thus, they happily drink the hot soup and eat their sandwiches because it is more than their usual.

So the next time you or your child or anyone in your family feels there is cause to complain, it might be good to bring up the fact that a P15 meal is more than what’s usual for kids not very far from your home.