NUTRITION
MINGO MEALS
Mingo is a nutritious instant complementary food made of rice, mongo (mung beans), and malunggay (moringa). NVC serves Mingo Meals to undernourished children all over the Philippines.
MINGO MEALS
NVC manufactures Mingo, a nutritious instant complementary food made of rice, mongo (mung beans), and malunggay (moringa). Mingo is primarily for infants and toddlers, but is also used for older children in areas of need.
Mingo comes in powder form and creates a porridge or drink when mixed with water, but hungry children often eat it straight from the sachet, which is okay, too!
Because of its convenience and nutritional value, Mingo has also gained popularity as emergency food in emergency relief operations. It has been used to feed people in a number of disaster or emergency situations in the Philippines.
Details
- Basic ingredients: rice, mongo (mung beans), malunggay (moringa)
- Variants: Original, Chocolate, Squash and Ube
- Packaging: 20-gram individual-serving foil sachets
- Shelf life: 1 year
Nutrition information (per serving)
- Energy (calories): 73
- Total fat (g): 0
- Total carbohydrates (g): 16
- Total protein (g): 1
- Vitamins and minerals: Vitamins A, C, B1, B6, potassium, iron, calcium, and zinc
MINGO NUTRITION PROGRAM
NVC runs a nutrition program using Mingo for children of impoverished families to help them build strong bodies and sharp minds.
Targeting the early years
NVC’s Mingo Meals feeding module provides complementary food to target clusters of children aged 6–60 months in deprived communities through a systematic and holistic approach.
This fills a gap in the nutrition of infants and toddlers. Most of government and NGO feeding programs focus on children 5 years and older, administered either in day care or elementary school.
“Under-nutrition in the Philippines remains a serious problem. The damage to health, physical growth and brain development of children affected by chronic under-nutrition—stunting in the first two years—is often irreversible, impairing them for life and leaving them with lower chances of finishing school and becoming highly-productive adults.” (Unicef Philippines)
Nutrition starts at home
NVC’s protocol is home-based, making it easier for parents to provide Mingo daily to children rather than having to go to a center to get a daily feeding.
Hands-on monitoring
Children enrolled in the program are weighed at the start of the feeding, and monitored monthly throughout the program’s duration. Field officers teach parents the importance of proper nutrition, give instructions on preparing Mingo, and also go door-to-door to check on beneficiaries.
Further reading:
- Dinagat Islands feeding program using Mingo Meals boasts 69.6% success rate
- The Asian Development Bank affirms Mingo’s effectivity in a Philippine project
- UNICEF Philippines: “Large numbers of Filipino children are undernourished: 3.6 million of children 0-59 months are underweight; and 4 million are stunted.”
- Philippine Daily Inquirer: Our hungry and stunted children
- The World Health Organization: Complementary feeding
- United States National Center for Biotechnology Information: The importance of infant and young child feeding and recommended practices
6-month feeding
Each child enrolled in the Mingo feeding program receives a daily 20-gram sachet of Mingo to boost his or her nutritional intake for the day. This goes on for a minimum of 6 months. Severely malnourished children are fed for 1 year and/or get a double dose of Mingo.
6–60 months of age
Most other feeding programs focus on older children who are already in day care or school. NVC fills a gap by targeting highly vulnerable infants and toddlers for whom breast milk is no longer enough.
Php 2,700
The cost of feeding one child for six months. This includes screening to make sure children come from families in need and that mothers continue breastfeed where applicable. It also covers monitoring the child’s progress during the feeding period.
