Supplemental Feeding Program
Annual Goal:
$
Since 2010, Volunteer for the Visayans (VFV) has conducted Nutrition Projects in numerous communities to help combat the undernourished status of Filipino preschool children in low income and disadvantaged rural and urban communities. At the same time, VFV has also implemented structured nutritional seminars and worked closely with local community officials to promote the importance of healthy nutrition.
To support the Nutrition Projects, VFV has implemented several Supplemental Feeding Programs throughout the week at the following VFV Centers; Cangumbang Center, Santo Nino Center, Bliss Center, and NTCHNC Center. The Feeding Program supplies 75 to 100 children ages 2 to 18 with a healthy meal.
The Target is to be able to conduct the feeding daily to aid the nutritional needs of the children. Aside from the improvement of the physical wellbeing of the child VFV noticed at the time that the feeding was conducted daily, there was also an improvement in their school attendance and performance.
The Issue
The Philippines continues to suffer from a number of public health concerns that are related to poor nutrition and an absence of basic awareness about the importance of lifestyle choices. As a result a number of issues, such as chronic heart disease, diabetes, vitamin A deficiency, PEM and infant undernourishment, are rampant in communities that are not educated on the importance of a healthy diet nor the dangers associated with heightened sugar, salt or fat content. But more importantly, those that do receive health and nutrition education still lack the resources to purchase healthy food and provide enough for their family daily.
In rural areas, these challenges are multiplied, especially for families whose main source of income is farming. Rice farmers in particular often struggle between harvest times to provide enough food for their children, not to mention they usually live in lowland areas that are prone to flooding.
The Solution
Through our partnership with Volunteer for the Visayans, the GoAbroad Foundation’s Director was introduced to a rural farming village called Cangumbang in 2011. After building multiple homes there, our Director went on to assist Volunteer for the Visayans in building a community evacuation center for the community, which experiences regular flooding annually that often submerges homes. In addition to developing the child sponsorship program from 11 children to 45 since the center was completed in 2013, we’ve also begun adding supplemental programs to support the nutritional and social welfare needs of the community.
The GoAbroad Foundation informally established the Weekend Supplemental Feeding Program following Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013, out of pure necessity for the children’s survival post-disaster. However, thanks to the generosity and fundraising efforts of a student group in the U.S., Hope for Haiyan, the program was formalized in June 2014 and continued successfully for 5 years. Over the years, the Hope for Haiyan student participants moved from elementary school to high school and beyond, to pursue higher education. As the students grew, their ability to host their annual fundraiser became limited.
In 2020, the Supplemental Feeding Program is in need of funding to continue supplying over 100 children in the community of Cangumbang with a feeding every Saturday.
Get Involved
For just $50, you can provide a Saturday feeding to over 100 children in Cangumbang. Or, for just $2, you can provide a weekend feeding to a child for the whole month and for $24 the child will be able to join our supplemental feeding program for a full year.