Original article: https://news.mb.com.ph/2019/06/19/group-prepares-mingo-meals-for-malnourished-children/?
By Glazyl Masculino
BACOLOD CITY –The Negrense Volunteers for Change (NVC) Foundation recently launched its campaign here to provide 10 million Mingo meals to undernourished children.
Mario Capanzana, director of Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), said they partnered with NVC in campaign to fight child malnutrition, citing reports that three out of 10 children do were too small for their age because they lacked proper nutrition when they were zero to five years old.
NVC Foundation President Milagros Kilayko said they started producing Mingo meals in 2011 as a complementary food, targeting clusters of children aged 6–60 months in deprived communities.
Mingo is a nutritious instant complementary food made of rice, mongo (mung beans), and malunggay (moringa) primarily for infants and toddlers.
It comes in powder form and creates a porridge or drink when mixed with water.
It can also be eaten straight from the sachet.
It has become popular during emergency relief operations because of its convenience and nutritional value.
The foundation has helped more than eight million children, producing 900,000 Mingo meals each year.
Kilayko said that as of last May the foundation has enrolled more than 22,000 in the 6-months daily home-based feeding protocol of Mingo meals.
“We have also fed many more through emergency relief, such as those in evacuation centers in Marawi where we sent more than 500,000 Mingo meals, school feeding programs, and other forms of nutritional support outside of our own feeding protocol,” Kilayko said.
She said the group needs to raise more support for about 1.7 million Mingo meals, and it hopes to reach that goal by January 2020.
”What we like to do now is to accelerate within the next seven months to reach the 10 million Mingo meals mark,” she added.
Kilayko said the group has reached 38 provinces as of June 18.
Just a week ago, the group went to the mountains of Calatrava and distributed over 100 love bags filled with school supplies to the town’s indigenous children.
“We saw their nutritional condition and they need nutritional support, thus we targeted them to be part of our campaign, as well as the indigenous people of Davao del Norte, Lambunao in Iloilo and many other provinces,” Kilayko said.
The NVC Foundation was established in the Philippines in August 2010 by private citizens to harness the power of private citizens to create positive and lasting change in their communities, towns and cities, and the country.