The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) Board headed by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Andrea D. Domingo has set aside P50 million to fund its Feeding Program for the school year 2016-2017.

This year’s Feeding Program is expected to benefit over 13,000 students from selected public elementary schools located in areas hosting Casino Filipino (CF) branches and Satellite Operations Groups (SOG) nationwide.

PAGCOR’s Assistant Vice President for Community Relations and Services Arnell Ignacio, who graced the program’s kick-off ceremony in Pampanga recently, said the feeding sessions will be done for 105 days. Beneficiaries will be fed with one full meal per day costing an average of P36.63 to help improve their nutritional status and help attain their ideal weight.

PAGCOR will give the funds to the schools selected by its Casino Filipino branches. The beneficiary school will prepare healthy meals using the fund. Apart from food, PAGCOR allocated P10 per day for each student for the procurement of weighing scales, utensils, vitamins and health and sanitation essentials.

“We are very happy that PAGCOR prioritizes the nutritional needs of undernourished Filipino school children. Kahanga-hanga ang proyektong ito dahil meron tayong 105 days na pakakainin ang mga bata ng complete meal,” Ignacio said.

He also noted that although the Feeding Program’s implementation can be quite challenging to the beneficiary schools, many students will benefit from the project. “It will be very challenging to prepare food for 105 days but at the end of the program, everybody will congratulate themselves after seeing the results,” he added.

He also noted that although the Feeding Program’s implementation can be quite challenging to the beneficiary schools, many students will benefit from the project. “It will be very challenging to prepare food for 105 days but at the end of the program, everybody will congratulate themselves after seeing the results,” he added. One of the project’s early beneficiaries this school year is Northville Elementary School (NES) in San Fernando, Pampanga. A total of 436 undernourished students from Kinder to Grade 6 will be fed with healthy meals.

According to School Principal Corazon Pamintuan, majority of their students come from poor families that some of them go to school on empty stomachs. “Alam natin na kapag walang laman ang tiyan, susunod na ang lahat. One way to motivate the children is to provide them food. That’s why we are thankful to PAGCOR because this is one way of encouraging them to perform better in school,” Pamintuan said.

She also shared that the previous feeding program in their school, which was also sponsored by PAGCOR had a great impact not only on the students’ health and well-being but also in their performance in class. Another PFP beneficiary school is the San Pedro Cutud Elementary School (SPES) in San Fernando, Pampanga with 156 beneficiaries.

“It is the first time that our school became a beneficiary of the PAGCOR Feeding Program. Maraming-maraming salamat sa inyong pagbibigay pansin sa aming eskwelahan,” school Principal Nancy Tayag expressed. Meanwhile, Marjorie Yandan, Senior Human Resource Assistant of Casino Filipino (CF) Angeles narrated that children under the PAGCOR Feeding Program were able to reach their ideal weight and improved their health after the program. “These kids are not just wasted or severely wasted but also indigent which means they are not capable to eat three times a day at home. Some of them just eat in school. Eventually, after the program, you will see improvements in their weight, skin color and performance in class,” Yandan shared.

The PAGCOR Feeding Program is a school-based feeding session organized by the state-run gaming firm in partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd). It aims to augment existing government programs that address malnutrition in the country.ss-fortunate Filipinos nationwide.

Beneficiaries of program are the “severely wasted” and “wasted” pupils from Kinder to Grade 6. “Severely wasted” children suffer from acute malnutrition and have high risk of mortality if not treated immediately, while “wasted” children suffer from acute malnutrition exhibiting low weight and height where the child is thin for his height.

Since its inception in 2010, the PAGCOR Feeding Program has been addressing the nutritional needs of an average of 10,000 undernourished schoolchildren in 175 public schools every year.

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