Nutribun Makes More Nutritious Comeback

In partnership with Bakers PH, a homegrown bread and pastry company, Ilocos Norte’s Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management and Resiliency Council (PDRRMC) and Provincial Nutrition Council (PNC) produced Nutribun with increased nutritive value for the Nutrition in Emergency feeding program of the Provincial Government as one of its responses to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic.

Nutribun is bread designed by the United States Agency for International Development and originally distributed under the USAID Food for Peace program to alleviate childhood malnutrition in the Philippines during the administration of the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

The Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte’s (PGIN) version of the milk bread is now baked with malunggay (moringa), honey, and fortified with Vitamins A and B6. It is complemented with pasturized choco-milk drink produced by the Philippine Carabao Center-Ilocos Norte.

PNC impressed that these were specially formulated for supplementing one third of the daily caloric needs of undernourished children; the Nutribun and choco-milk contain 400 and 75 calories, respectively.

“Ito po ang wish ng family ko for how many years—na ibalik ang Nutribun. Even though we are just starting [in Ilocos Norte], we see this as a great opportunity na ituloy ang dating programa ng lolo ko [Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.],” Governor Matthew Marcos Manotoc remarked.

During the orientation and distribution of supplies to 17 barangay and 38 children recipients in Laoag City alone, representatives from implementing offices likewise discussed guidelines to Barangay Nutrition Committee members, underscoring the importance of monitoring the children’s health progression every month.

“Problema po ang malnourishment dito sa probinsiya natin. Medyo mababa ang numbers pero highest tayo sa Region I,” Gov. Marcos Manotoc claimed.

“Kagaya ng COVID-19, ayaw natin ng number one pagdating sa malnutrition,” he quipped.

Moreover, PNC also stressed on the importance of deworming, immunization, vitamin supplementation and other PGIN health programs to further immunize the children as the feeding program only serves as a part of the holistic approach to lessen the prevalence of malnutrition in the province.

“Hopefully with all our nutrition action officers and scholars, we will rectify this problem in a few years. These are difficult times but we should also remember our children,” he ended.