MANILA, Philippines - Kraft Foods Philippines (KFP) and Save the Children organization recently announced that their joint FRESH (Future Resilience and Stronger Households) project has yielded significant results in mitigating malnutrition and hunger in several indigent communities in the country.
The FRESH project, which is a three-year partnership between KFP and Save the Children, covers 19 barangays in Parañaque, Metro Manila; San Remigio, Antique; and Lake Sebu, South Cotabato. It is actively involved in relieving children’s hunger, providing health and nutrition information to communities, improving opportunities for long-term food security, and strengthening readiness and capacity of local government units and community-based groups.
According to Joseph Michael Singh, Save the Children’s director for program implementation and management, the Philippines has a huge number of children today that are likely suffering from hunger and malnutrition. “That’s about one out of every four children or 11 million kids starving right at this moment,” he said.
FRESH has made strides in nourishing more than 7,000 students through school feeding that resulted in a 20 percent increase in attendance rate among partner schools. FRESH also created more than 900 food gardens within the community and provided more than 1,000 mothers with information regarding health, hygiene and sanitation.
“We would like to acknowledge the wholehearted support of schools who continue to work with us to stop hunger from affecting children’s education. We are continuously inspired by the numerous testimonials from communities we work with, telling us how our initiatives helped them address the needs of their family, especially their children,” said Joseph Michael Singh, Save The Children director for program implementation .
“We are continuously working harder to ensure the FRESH project will achieve results beyond its targets. At Kraft Foods Philippines, we believe we can make a delicious difference in creating a better future for Filipino families everywhere,” KFP corporate and government affairs head Cindy Lim said.