Bugallon feeds underweight kids with carabao milk
BUGALLON—Some 221 severely underweight children aged 0-7 months old in 24 barangays of the town receive 200-milliliter of carabao milk daily to drink over a 90-day period that started last July, courtesy of the local government.
The milk supply is being delivered house-to-house by barangay health scholars.
The “Adopt a Severely Underweight Child” program is a part of the municipal government’s joint action and initiatives to eliminate malnutrition in partnership with the private sector.
Another nutrition program is a supplemental feeding in day care centers’ pupils for 120 days, in barangays for the 0-two years olds, and for grade schoolers.
Mayor Jumel Anthony Espino said the town is focusing on nutrition since it has been identified as the number one among the towns with high prevalence of malnutrition by the provincial health office in the last five years.
“Our target is zero malnutrition,” Espino said.
The milk supply for the milk program is being sourced from the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) processing plant in Asingan town.
However, Espino said that once the 32-carabaos awarded by the PCC to the Bugallon-LGU- through the Free Farmers Federation- start providing milk, the town will be able to supply its own needs for nutritious milk.
The town hopes to be the carabao milk processing center in the western and central Pangasinan soon. (Johanne R. Macob)
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