The provincial government of Negros Occidental released yesterday P4,973,000 in grant to the Negrense Volunteers for Change (NVC) Foundation Inc. to enroll 2,000 children in a six-month nutrition program to curb malnutrition.
NVC will administer the program for 200 children in each of the 10 municipalities that recorded high malnutrition in 2019.
Granted under the Provincial Council for Protection of Children (PCPC) of which NVC is a member, the foundation will work together with local health offices and health workers in administering the program that will undertake careful monitoring and documentation.
NVC will also provide the children daily servings of Mingo meals, an instant nutritious complementary food that it manufactures in its FDA-accredited production facility and made from rice, mongo, malunggay, and natural ingredients sourced from local farmers.
NVC is a 10-year-old homegrown Negrense NGO that received the Outstanding Negrense Award from Capitol in 2014. It has served 46 provinces in the Philippines with 11,679,651 Mingo meals, to date.
The foundation also engages in livelihood programs, and had distributed 4,980 motorized fishing boats to marginal fishermen. It also built 213 classrooms, almost half in Negros Occidental.
When Negros Occidental was placed under Enhanced Community Quarantine early this year, NVC was among the first responders from the private sector to mobilize the production of 17,040 PPE lab gowns and 8,476 face shields for frontliners provincewide.
Its Covid-19 crisis response also included the distribution of 650,911 Mingo meals and 6,507 meal bags that contained vegetables and fruits sourced from local farmers, fish from marginal fishermen, rice and Mingo.
Currently, NVC also focuses on the establishment of urban edible gardens and assistance to small farmers to help insure food sustainability especially to families who are affected by the Covid-19 crisis.
“We may have brought Mingo to many provinces but our hearts will always beat faster and our hands will always work harder for the people of the province we are named after,” Millie Kilayko, NVC president, said.
“We thank Gov. Eugenio Lacson and his team of provincial officials for their support in making this possible,” she added.*
