TACLOBAN CITY – Addressing the alarming rates of malnutrition, the provincial government of Samar launched the ‘Tutok at Aksyon sa Nutrisyon’ (TAN) Kitchen on February 25, 2024, at the Tandaya Hall in Catbalogan City.
The TAN Kitchen represents an innovative approach to combatting malnutrition within the province, focusing on three key areas: preventive, curative, and rehabilitative measures.
In the preventive aspect, the program aims to educate both children and communities on health and nutrition, promote healthy meal planning, monitor weight and height, and encourage home and community food gardening.
Additionally, the curative aspect will provide supplemental feeding to malnourished children, along with in-patient therapeutic care (ITC), outpatient therapeutic care (OTC), and a strengthened referral system from rural health units (RHUs) to hospitals.
The rehabilitative aspect will involve various activities such as training on demo cooking and meal planning, storytelling, identification of malnourished children, and refresher courses for barangay nutrition scholars (BNS) and barangay health workers (BHWs).
The provincial government plans to collaborate with stakeholders including local government units, the Department of Health (DOH), National Nutrition Council (NNC), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and the provincial, city, and municipal nutrition action officers to conduct capacity building activities.
Furthermore, the TAN Kitchen Nutri-van will travel across the province accompanied by the program’s mascot, Super G, providing interactive sessions for children through storytelling, cooking demonstrations, and the distribution of hot meals.
The Super G strategy targets children under 5 years old, leveraging their magical thinking behavior through play therapy to foster a better understanding of nutrition and combat malnutrition creatively.
To ensure sustainability, the province emphasizes the involvement of parents and communities in nutrition programs, promoting responsible parenting and behavioral change.
According to 2023 data from the DOH and NNC, 21,565 Samarnon children under 5 years old were reported malnourished, with 10,403 stunted, 1,250 wasted, 7,561 underweight, and 2,351 overweight.
(LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
