MANILA, Philippines – Hunger and malnutrition continue to be a national pandemic affecting thousands of school-age Filipino children. One province at a time, Knorr is making a dent in reducing the national malnutrition level among school children through its Makulay ang Buhay ng Batang Pinoy (MBBP) supplementary feeding program.
Now on its seventh year, the MBBP feeding program has already nourished some 15,000 malnourished school kids, with the help of two NGOs-Kabisig ng Kalahi (Kabisig) and the UN World Food Program (UNWFP).
The MBBP program’s overall aim is to reduce by 10 percent the country’s malnourishment level for children 5 years old and below by year 2015. This is in line with the UN’s first millennium development goal to have by year 2015 the proportion of hungry people who earn less than $1/day.
To operationalize its feeding program, Knorr partnered with Kabisig, which implemented the MBBP as a community-based feeding program in selected depressed communities in Luzon and Visayas - and the UNWFP, which implemented the MBBP’s school-based feeding program in selected schools in Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato provinces.
The MBBP is among Knorr’s major corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects which seeks to promote good and proper nutrition among Filipino children nationwide. Both Kabisig and the UNWFP receive a shared total budget of P12 million annually, to implement the MBBP.
The major goal of Kabisig is to organize some 200 feeding modules in Luzon and Visayas until the end of the program. The UNWFP, on the other hand, aims to reach 426 schools in 12 municipalities of Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato.
To date, Kabisig has organized 190 feeding modules, while the UNWFP has reached 87 schools, in each organization’s respective areas of responsibility. Kabisig’s lead convenor Vicky Wieneke credits their other community partners, including the local government units and the barangay health centers, among others, for the continued success of the MBBP at the school level.
UNWFP country director Stephen Anderson said, “MBBP is a good program that is helping make an impact on the ground.”
With the help of data mapping results gathered by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), Kabisig and the UNWFP were able to identify the most malnourished provinces of the Philippines, which became their target beneficiaries.
Unilever Philippines launched the original Pasiglahin ang Batang Pinoy Supplementary Feeding Program in 2002. In 2006, Knorr adopted the program and relaunched it as the MBBP supplementary feeding program, based on Knorr’s hit TV campaign Makulang ang Buhay sa Sinabawang Gulay (Life is colorful with soupy vegetable) - a campaign that encouraged Filipino children to enjoy eating their vegetables.