By Gladys Pino/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — A Department of Education (DepEd) monitoring team will make the rounds of Region IV-A (Calabarzon) schools to check on compliance to a DepEd order on healthy food and beverages in canteens starting June 3, the opening of classes.
Neil Evangelista, DepEd Region IV-A nutritionist and dietitian, said the monitoring team would randomly check on the various schools in Calabarzon. Calabarzon has 2,749 elementary, 702 junior high and 478 senior high schools.
Parents are also reminded to provide their kids with packed nutritious food for snacks and lunch.
The team would also check on food safety protocols and warned that violators “will get reprimand first and be dealt with administratively”.
Under Department Order 13 or the Policy and Guidelines on Healthy Food and Beverage Choices in Schools, healthy food and beverage choices should be made available to learners and DepEd personnel.
To prepare for the school opening, the Department of Health (DOH) in Region IV-A, included the school canteen chefs and managers in their workshop on proper nutrition and diet at Selah Garden Hotel in Pasay City over the weekend.
Dr. Marilou Espiritu of DOH Calabarzon said that canteens perform “a significant part in the promotion of healthy eating habits of children”.
“As they say, you are what you eat and we better start the prevention, promotion early on to kids to make healthy food and beverage choices as their way of life, so they won’t be pre-disposed to non-communicable diseases,” she said.
The series of workshops aimed to further improve and enhance the region’s nutritionists’ and dieticians’ knowledge in the development of appropriate meal plan for patients affected by lifestyle-related diseases like diabetes, kidney and cardiovascular diseases, including cancer.
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