ROAD TO NATIONAL NUTRITION HONOR AWARD

Road to the national Nutrition Honor Award

"But charity is a very complicated thing. It's important to find an area where you can really help and you can feel the results. Charity is not like feeding pigeons in the square. It is a process that requires professional management." - Roman Abramovich, Russian businessman.

Our quest for national nutrition supremacy started when I was still still Vice Mayor and Damian Mercado was the City Mayor.  We won our first Green Banner Award for the year 2004 when we topped the city category in the whole Eastern Visayas Region beating Tacloban and Ormoc.

Before the winning of the Green banner, our malnutrition rate was high at about 20%.  When we started implementing our nutrition programs, malnutrition was 10.33% among pre-schoolers which was the lowest among cities in Region 8.  We won the Green Banner for three consecutive years in 2004, 2005 and 2006 garnering the Consistent Regional Outstanding Winner in Nutrition (CROWN) award in the process.

The CROWN award was conferred by the National Nutrition Council (NNC) to a town, city or province that has been adjudged by the inter-agency regional nutrition evaluation team as outstanding in the region in the implementation of its nutrition action plan for three consecutive years.

Winning the CROWN When I became City Mayor in 2007 we continued winning our CROWN garnering our first maintenance award from no less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo at the Manila Hotel. Our malnutrition rate was 7.56% among pre-schooler children that time.

Then in the assessment for the 2008 accomplishments we faltered as we failed to get the passing mark during the national evaluation.  It was the time when the abaca industry in Maasin was greatly affected by diseases like bungy top and alcoheres.  Our malnutrition slightly increased to 7.57% among pre-schooloers.  Besides the barangays which were evaluated proved to be insufficient in their programs.

We were back to square one and competed again at the regional level garnering the Green Banner Award in the city category in 2009, 2010 and 2011.  We emerged again as CROWN awardees and we returned to the national nutrition awarding ceremony.  Malnutrition rate went down to 5.03% among pre-school kids in 2011.

In 2011 Maasin got the CROWN Award and in the year 2012 and 2013 we got the two consecutive years CROWN maintenance awards.  Then we would vie for the highest nutrition award in the country.

Journey to the Honor Award
I wanted to lower our malnutrition rate to a rate of 2%. The City Government needs the support of all stakeholders, considering we have a population of 86,000. We invested considerable amount for our nutrition programs. We worked hard not only for the awards, but for the future of our children and the city.

"For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home." -  Matthew 25:35.

During that time, the barangays with zero malnutrition in the city are Canturing, Abgao and Cansirong.  We worked on improving the system of our nutrition program to guarantee further reduction of the malnutrition incidence from the existing 5.03% that time.

We focused on the formulation of a Barangay Nutrition Action Plan (BNAP) and strengthening of the Barangay Nutrition Committee (BNC) of the seventy barangays and motivate all of them to function.

The activation of the BNC in every barangay is very significant since it is responsible for formulating, managing, monitoring and evaluating the BNAP, mobilizing the needed resources for the implementation of the projects under the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN).  Part of their functions is to coordinate and integrate nutrition-related projects and activities of government and NGOs, including organizing the community to participate in nutrition projects.

At the grassroots level, a very helpful and practical function of the BNC is in the promotion of home, school, and community food production in the villages.  Some of their programs include distribution of seeds and seedlings, planting materials, fingerlings, goat, chicken, duck, etc. and in the establishment of demo- centers and nurseries.

Adopt a malnourished child
On top of this, is another innovative activity which is the adopt a severely malnourished child that is gaining support in the community.

Starting from my adoption of three severely malnourished children, each for all the members of the Sangguniang Panglungsod, heads of the department of the city government and city hall employees follow suit. Then it was simultaneously replicated with the adoptions by the different sectors in the city like the fraternities, civil society organizations, religious groups, national line agencies and even down at the barangay level.

The "Adopt-A-Malnourished Child Program" was launched on November 29, 2014 with 95 underweight and severely underweight children aged 0-71 months old as recipients. Each child was allocated P30 per meal per day budget good for 150 days.  The total amount involved was P437,500.00.  On February 14, 2014, we had a Love Day for these children where we had a feeding program and gift giving at the City Gym.

In a launching activity of the said program at the city gymnasium, in my opening message I urged everyone including non-government organizations, private sector and the general public to help the city officials reach the goal towards zero malnutrition.

We are targeting the vision "Good Nutrition – A way of life of the people of Maasin City."

There were 150 supplemental feeding days which started December 2, 2014.  Each office or agency contributed P30.00 a day per adopted child, excluding Saturdays and Sundays to rehabilitate the identified malnourished children. Supplemental feeding was only once a day.

The activity showcased some identified recipients that are living along the city proper. They were fed after the launching and were given pair of slippers sponsored by Cong. Damian Mercado along with his family and a "get-to-know" between the adopted child and their sponsor

National evaluation
During the national evaluation, Health Assistant Secretary Bernardita Flores lauded Maasin City as it continues to aim for a healthy and well-nourished citizenry for almost 12 years already.

Flores is also the executive director of the National Nutrition Council (NNC) and recently led the national team of evaluators who visited the city, as it vies for the National Honor Award (NHA), the highest award conferred to a local government unit.

Flores said that to get the National Honor Award, one has to get 98 per cent rating on overall nutrition program. The evaluators will also give 5 per cent bonus rating.

She said that the unity and the cooperation between the city, province and in the representative of the lower house chamber proves beneficial to Maasin City, because it gets all the support it needed in all its programs for a healthy citizenry.

She added that the support Maasin got from provincial Governor Roger Mercado and Representative Mercado is a big boost to the journey of Maasin towards excellence in implementing its nutrition program.

The journey towards the Nutrition Honor Award (NHA)is not a bed of roses, but my contention was that win or lose, the nutrition programs for the citizenry of Maasin City will continue.

For me, the award is just a bonus for our efforts, but our service to our constituents continues.

“Our goal is to have a healthy and nourished citizenry not only in Maasin City but throughout Southern Leyte,”  Cong. Damian G. Mercado disclosed in his opening message during the welcome program for the national nutrition evaluators held April 29, 2014 at the Maasin City College .

The awards for Maasin for effective nutrition program implementation were mentioned such as  the Green Banner Awards;  Outstanding Municipality in the Region; Red Orchid Awards for three consecutive years which gained Maasin City the Hall of Fame for successfully implementing the anti-smoking campaign; Consistent Regional Outstanding Winner in Nutrition (CROWN), to name a few.

The national evaluators for the Nutrition Honor Award  was led by Assistant Secretary for Health Maria-Bernardita T. Flores. They randomly selected five barangays to be validated such as Pinascohan, Laboon, Malapoc Norte, Canturing and Ibarra. The evaluation started today, April 30 and will end May 2, 2014. 

We welcomed the national validating team which arrived April 29, 2014 in a short program held at Maasin City College together with the members of the City Nutrition Committee headed by Nutrition Action Officer Dr. Francilisa I. Tan, Sangguniang Panglungsod members, among other concerned local officials and employees.  The evaluation lasted until May 2, 2014.

The team also visited mangrove areas, school’s hand washing facility and vegetable gardens, and the Maasin City nursery.

Presentation of nutrition situation During the presentation of Maasin City’s nutrition situation, I focused on the impact programs implemented by the city such as food production, food fortification, livelihood assistance, micronutrient supplementation, nutrition information, communication and education, promoting healthy lifestyle, nutrition in emergencies, adopt a malnourished child program, among others and it’s road to the national Nutrition Honor Award, as its target and goal for Maasin City.

“Nutrition has always been included in my priority programs,” I said showing the Maasin City’s 13-point agenda, “MALONEY SAMACO,” as N stands for Nutrition and health services.  I explained that the city government allocated funds for nutrition program for at least P1 million for the past 3 years and more than P1.4-M last year.

I eagerly shared the leading intervening factors such as the home, school food production, adopt a malnourished child, that bounces up the nutritional status in Maasin City.

I discussed also “Gulayan sa Paaralan” and "Magulay ang Bahay" programs which are the most effective intervention that helps in the recovery of malnutrition in the city for years.

The program yields the nutritious food which are just planted within the premises of the household and in the schools thus readily provides food for the hungry children and even give the farmers a means for livelihood, as I explained to Assistant Secretary Ma-Bernardita Flores during the partial assessment. 

Food production activities such hog raising, chicken dispersal, goat raising, planting of vegetables, it also includes the procurement of mobile vans that carries the agricultural output of the farmers down to the market, among others.

The City Nutrition Committee appropriated some P70,000.00 for the procurement of vegetable seeds distributed among the 70 barangays and to those identified nutritionally depressed barangays will be receive more.

Malnutrition rates In the year 2013, our underweight children were 4.14% in the city as compared to 26.4% in Eastern Visayas and 20.7% in the entire Philippines.  Wasting or thinness is 1.8% in Maasin while it is 6.7% in Region 8 and 6.9% in the entire country. 

Stunting or low height for age is 10.2% in the city while it is 41.1% in the region and 32.3% in the whole country.  Overweight children is only 0.71% as compared to 3.3% in the whole Philippines.

For school children, our rates were still way below the national and regional standards.  In the school year 2013-2014, we had 92.61% normal, 5.16% wasted, 0.65% severely wasted, 1.2% above normal, and 0.34% obese.  

Winning the Nutrition Honor Award The National Nutrition Council conferred the highest distinction in nutrition, the Nutrition Honor Award, to Maasin City together with the municipality of Lal-lo in Cagayan province in Region 2, and the province of Ifugao in the Cordillera Administrative Region. According to the NNC, "Our LGUs have exemplified outstanding performance in nutrition program management as manifested by the continued reduction in the prevalence of undernutrition both among preschool and school children for six (6) consecutive years as validated by the inter-agency National Nutrition Evaluation Team." 

The City of Maasin and other nutrition champions each received a trophy and cash incentive of P1,000,000 during the 2014 National Nutrition Awarding Ceremony on October 21, 2014 at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City. Sixteen (16) other LGUs were recognized during the awarding ceremony.

"You are what you eat." The famous phrase was popularized by American nutritionist Victor Lindlahr, who was a strong believer in the idea that food controls health, according to phrases.org.uk. The earliest known printed example was in a 1923 edition of the Bridgeport Telegraph:  "Ninety percent of the diseases known to man are caused by cheap foodstuffs. You are what you eat."