We all know that proper nutrition for children is very important for them to perform their activities anywhere, may it be at home or in school. For lacking on it may affect their performance.
For three public schools that I have been thru, one of the programs that the schools have and mostly cannot be without is the Feeding Program. Feeding Program for children under nourish. These are children that have insufficient nutrition in the body. Gaining weight that is not normal or appropriate with their age and height. Most of malnourish children that I have encountered do not perform very well in school. They have poor understanding of the lesson, they can hardly cope up with the activities, and they absent often in class due to sickness and worst some didn’t make it to pass the grade. Now, the question is, why do we have under nourished children? Some of the reasons that came out are first, because of poverty. Parents cannot support all the needs of their children. They sacrifice having nutritious food in order to attain the other needs of the family. Second is lack of right information of what is the right food to be eaten. Ignorance to proper nutrition really tends to malnutrition. And third, some really don’t care about it. They don’t mind about their physical fitness and health.
The feeding program as I observed, really helps the child to do better in class. It gives benefits not only for the physical aspect but also the mental aspect of a person. Having this kind of activity in school is really a good way to develop child’s total growth and development. For they have a lot of focus to what they’re doing. Absenteeism due to sickness reduced and passers in grade level increased. With the help of local government and non government offices the feeding program continues. They donated money or foods such as sack of rice, fruits and vegetables to be cooked. During the program the school monitors the progress of the weight and health as well as performance of the children in class. All pupils included in this have been provided either lunch or morning and afternoon snacks for the whole year or couple of months depends on the budget they have for it.
By: Ms. Rosa Rizza M. Gamboa | Teacher I | Mt. View Elementary School | Mariveles, Bataan