Nestlé Philippines and the Department of Education-Davao (DepEd-Davao) inked a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on Tuesday to promote nutrition education by teaching healthy habits to over a million elementary and high school students in public schools in the Davao Region.
The MOA signing, which was held at the Ritz Hotel in Davao City, marks the implementation of the Nestlé Wellness Campus for School Yearc2023-2024.
Nestlé Wellness Campus is the nutrition education advocacy program of Nestlé Philippines made possible through the support of DepEd. It also aims to help promote good nutrition and an active lifestyle among Filipino students.
Jose Uy III, senior vice president and head of corporate affairs of Nestlé Philippines, said with this MOA, the DepEd-Davao has provided the company the opportunity to continue with its advocacy of instilling healthy habits among young students.
“As the Kasambuhay for Good of Filipino families, we believe in the role that education plays in raising healthy and happy children. When they are properly nourished, students become eager to learn and can perform well in school,” he said.
Initially implemented in 2013 in four regions across the Philippines, the Nestlé Wellness Campus has since expanded to seven regions and was adopted by the DepEd-Davao in School Year 2021-2022. Over the last two years, the program has reached 613,922 elementary students and 400,275 high school students from Davao del Sur, Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, Davao de Oro, and Davao Occidental.
Dr. Allan Farnazo, regional director of DepEd-Davao, said through the Nestlé Wellness Campus the students have a variety of resources that will allow them to practice healthy habits with their teachers and classmates in school, as well as with their parents and siblings at home.
“We are excited to open this new school year with a mindset that will not only focus on our student’s education but also their overall health and wellness.,” said Farnazo.
Currently, the project has inspired more than 10.5 million students and 400,000 teachers from over 21,000 public schools to make healthier choices. The program has helped improve the nutrition knowledge and attitudes of elementary and junior high school students across seven regions namely Region 4-A (Calabarzon), Region 5 (Bicol Region), Region 6 (Western Visayas), Region 7 (Central Visayas), Region 10 (Northern Mindanao), Region 11 (Davao Region) and National Capital Region (NCR).
Nestlé Philippines together with various experts also co-created a complete set of modules about the seven Healthy Habits, namely Choose Nutritious and Varied Options, Manage Portions, Drink Water and Milk, Play Actively, Enjoy Meals Together, Keep Good Hygiene and Care for the Planet to address stunting among children.
Based on the data from the Expanded National Nutrition Survey (ENNS) 2018-2019 conducted by the Department of Science and Technology – Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) showed that one in four (24.9%) school-aged children is stunted. While the prevalence of underweight children among this age group significantly decreased from 31.2% in 2015 to 25.5% when the latest ENNS was conducted, the number of overweight children went up from 8.5% to 10.4% during the same period.
The Nestlé Wellness Campus also prepared a Dancercise titled “Tara! Sama-Sama sa Wellness!” that students can follow during the flag ceremony or in Physical Education classes.
