Munting Gulayan Alay sa Kalusugan ng Kabataan

Going beyond the minimum output requirement of the Bio-Intensive Gardening Program, the Bais City Nutrition Committee has included nutrition education and a multi-sectoral monitoring scheme to the usual agriculture inputs of free vegetable seeds, organic fertilizers and technical assistance. This modification enables the program, now dubbed “Munting Gulayan alay sa Kalusugan ng Kabata-an”, to be more effective and sustainable as evidenced by the continued decrease in the city’s malnutrition rate from the start of the program in 2014 from 11.46% to 9.11% in 2016.

Lead by the City Agriculture Office, the program involves the members of the City Nutrition Committee who are tasked to conduct seminars on cultivating vegetables, promote gardening, and health and nutrition classes focused on the marginalized groups, families with malnourished preschool children and those with limited land area.

In 2016, the Bais City Nutrition Committee has expanded said program by successfully advocating for the passage of a resolution adopting and expanding RNC Resolution No. 013-04 (s2013) “Strengthening Vegetable Production and Consumption”. The adopted resolution allowed the City Agriculture Office to put up a site to increase vegetable production as well as increasing the scope of the program by providing vegetables produce to day care centers and elementary schools for their supplementary feeding program and to the city jail to be used in daily food consumption.

The city nutrition committee has also included a multi-sectoral monitoring and mentoring scheme of the said project involving all of its members wherein barangay nutrition committees are evaluated and provided technical assistance. Bais CNPC Ramon Anton M. Valencia

nnc.gov.ph