Press Release Sample

Importance of Nutrition to Schoolchildren (A Press Release for Department of Education)) Last May, the United Nations Children’s Fund said the Philippines rank ninth among 10 developing nations with the most number of underweight children below five years old stating further there were three million children aged five and below who are underweight. The report, conducted in 1996 to 2005 which appeared in Inq7 in May 6, said that 30% of the underweight under five in the Philippines suffer from stunting or being too short for their age while six percent have been classified as wasted or dangerously thin. Unicef country representative Dr. Nicholas Alipui wrote to the media, “This should serve as a challenge for the country to build a system and mechanism capable of implementing comprehensive nutrition interventions supported by all key players.” The Department of Education, nevertheless, has continuously been active in promoting children nutrition through the Feeding Program. Locally, the program is delegated to Home Economics teachers and partially subsidized by the local schools like the school canteen which may fund about 20% percent of the expenses in a twice a week Feeding Program. Nutritious foods such as “arroz caldo” garnished with school garden vegetables like “malunggay” as well as “sopas” with carrots, beans, cabbage and other vegetables were given to school children. Nutrition health problems had been noted to be one of the preventable diseases, which unfortunately claimed about 9942 Filipino children in 1997 alone as reported by Unicef. Malnutrition is caused by overlapping deficiencies of protein, energy and micronutrients (nutrients needed by the body in small or tiny amounts), inadequate food intake, poor health services, lack of safe water and sanitation, and inadequate child and maternal care. Parents are urged to serve fresh fruits, vegetables, fruit juice and as much as possible, home-cooked foods to their children. In order to avoid costly produce and processed snacks or junk foods as well as softdrinks that is heavily linked to diabetes during “merienda”, local products such as whole grain corn or “mais”, peanut or “mani”, cassava or “kamoteng kahoy”, banana or “saging”, mangoes, guavas, “santol”, and other local tropical fruits are highly recommended. For regular meals, rice may be regularly accompanied with fish and vegetables. Also best for the health are beans such as string beans, Baguio beans, mongo, and soy beans as good protein foods in lieu of fatty red and white meats. These combinations will also highly reduce cancer, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, among a long list of other diseases and will increase resistance to most acquired diseases. Likewise, local government’s rural health units are also enjoined to prioritize underprivileged families in health services as well as provision of free medicines, medical care, among others. As home and school are the most crucial places for learning, families and teachers are encouraged to join hands not only in educating children through serving or giving right dietary examples, but also through active promotion of good dietary and health practices. Television exposure has also been considered as influential in children diet as they are exposed to highly paid processed but unhealthy foods such as hamburgers, crunchy chips in fancy packages, soft drinks, and other easy-to-access mass-produced instant foods. If the future belongs to children, then, all sectors must help and actively promote children nutrition now. ###