OVP To Deploy Food Trucks For School Kids

The office of Vice President Sara Duterte is set to deploy “Kalusugan Food Trucks” in select areas nationwide to address malnutrition among school children.

“The Office of the Vice President Kalusugan Food Truck is a program that seeks to help children suffering from malnutrition, hunger and poor development,” OVP Local Affairs and Special Programs Division chief Norman Baloro said in a statement yesterday.

Baloro said the program will be implemented in collaboration with the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Health through the National Nutrition Council (NNC).

Three food trucks, one each for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao will initially be used for the program.

Baloro said that the trucks were lent to the OVP until 2028 under a usufruct agreement.

These will regularly stop at identified schools and institutions with malnutrition and hunger problems among children, he added.

Baloro stressed that the project would follow a 120-day feeding program menu recommended by the NNC.

“We target nine schools in a year (three schools each in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao), considering that 120 days is prescribed by the NNC,” Baloro said.

He added that the food trucks could also be used as “augmentation resource” in serving food to victims of calamities.

Sara gets passing mark

Meanwhile, public school teachers have given Duterte a passing grade in her first 100 days as DepEd chief.

They recognized the orderly rollout of face-to-face classes amid challenges of the lingering pandemic as a major accomplishment of the department under her leadership.

The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC), an umbrella organization of public school teachers’ associations nationwide, said that while 100 days were too short a time to make judgment on the leadership of the Vice President, they would concede giving her a passing grade for her performance so far. – With Rainier Allan Ronda