How to Start a Children's Feeding Program
How to Start a Children’s Feeding Program
17 ways to recreate the miracle of loaves and fishes
1. Identify your source of funds. Talk to people, family members, friends, colleagues and others who you think can help. Get pledges and accept donations.
2. Estimate feeding cost. Usually P500-P700 will feed 100 children at one time. Remember you are providing a supplement to, and not a replacement for their regular meals.
3. Identify the school where you want to conduct the program. For better impact, select a poor or depressed community.
4. Confer with school nurses, who are usually from the City Schools or Department of Education (DepEd). They have a yearly census of the entire grade school population that identifies who are underweight and undernourished.
5. When you have the exact number of children you need to feed, you can now compute the monthly budget you need. It is good to have a headstart of at least three months’ budget.
6. Coordinate with the school administration to meet with representatives from the parents and teachers associations, the barangay, and the school nurses so that the whole community gets involved. Organize them so that tasks and responsibilities are fairly distributed. You need a chairman (that might rightfully be you), an executive officer (usually the principal), secretary (usually the nurse), a treasurer who is best chosen from among the teachers (someone whom everyone trusts, comes to school regularly and is always available, and gets along well with everybody).
7. Set a date for mass deworming during which a general PTA meeting can be called to explain the program and a DepEd nutritionist or dietician can talk about nutrition and locally available nutrients, as well as food preparation.
8. Agree on the menu to be served. Have as many as possible that can be rotated to suit the children’s taste. Pay attention to nutritional content, presentation and volume of serving. It is good to have a calendared menu for the entire month.
17 ways to recreate the miracle of loaves and fishes
1. Identify your source of funds. Talk to people, family members, friends, colleagues and others who you think can help. Get pledges and accept donations.
2. Estimate feeding cost. Usually P500-P700 will feed 100 children at one time. Remember you are providing a supplement to, and not a replacement for their regular meals.
3. Identify the school where you want to conduct the program. For better impact, select a poor or depressed community.
4. Confer with school nurses, who are usually from the City Schools or Department of Education (DepEd). They have a yearly census of the entire grade school population that identifies who are underweight and undernourished.
5. When you have the exact number of children you need to feed, you can now compute the monthly budget you need. It is good to have a headstart of at least three months’ budget.
6. Coordinate with the school administration to meet with representatives from the parents and teachers associations, the barangay, and the school nurses so that the whole community gets involved. Organize them so that tasks and responsibilities are fairly distributed. You need a chairman (that might rightfully be you), an executive officer (usually the principal), secretary (usually the nurse), a treasurer who is best chosen from among the teachers (someone whom everyone trusts, comes to school regularly and is always available, and gets along well with everybody).
7. Set a date for mass deworming during which a general PTA meeting can be called to explain the program and a DepEd nutritionist or dietician can talk about nutrition and locally available nutrients, as well as food preparation.
8. Agree on the menu to be served. Have as many as possible that can be rotated to suit the children’s taste. Pay attention to nutritional content, presentation and volume of serving. It is good to have a calendared menu for the entire month.