Las Piñas wins NNC award

Las Piñas City is once again the recipient of another prestigious award, this time, the "Maintenance Award" from the National Nutrition Council (NNC) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) for maintaining and sustaining its efforts in providing the best nutritional and health care among the Las Piñas City residents.

Las Piñas is the only recipient of the award in the city category in the National Capital Region.

Last year, Las Piñas also won the Consistent Regional Outstanding Winner in Nutrition, popularly known as the CROWN Award for its outstanding implementation of a nutrition program for three consecutive years, from 1997-1999.

Mel Aguilar, wife of Las Piñas City Mayor Vergel "Nene" Aguilar and City Nutrition Action Officer received yesterday the award from Sen. Edgardo Angara in an awarding ceremony at Eulogio "Amang" Rodriguez Hall in Pasig City.

The award, according to Mayor Aguilar is a manifestation of his sincere desire to give priority to better health and nutrition care to the residents of the city, especially children from depressed communities who are victims of malnutrition.

One of the initiatives of Mayor Aguilar to address the malnutrition problem in the city is the milk and nutritious food feeding program benefiting thousands of children of poor families from the city’s 20 barangays. Vitamin A and Iron are also administered to children who are undernourished.

Records from the City Nutrition Office showed that the prevalence of malnutrition among the children in Las Piñas City has continuously decreased from 21.4 percent before the term of Mayor Aguilar in 1995 to a remarkable less than one percent this year.