PAOFI Nutrition Program aims to help alleviate malnutrition primarily to the poor and disadvantaged children by providing nutritious meals through feeding programs and ready-to-use therapeutic food.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
- To provide nutritious meals to malnourished children in the community.
- To achieve 90% of the number of feeding children with normal nutritional status by the end of the year.
- To provide activities and seminars to feeding beneficiaries, parents , staff and volunteers.
Supplemental Feeding Program –provides one (1) full meal daily which includes rice and viand to malnourished children ages 2 – 12 years old from Mondays to Fridays. Through the help of faithful sponsors and volunteers, the feeding program runs daily except Saturdays and Sundays from 9:00am to 12:00 noon. There are almost 350 malnourished children every year who are accepted and fed daily in the nine (9) feeding centers around Payatas A and B, Quezon City
Feeding Centers
Aside from the daily meals, the feeding program also offers different activities for both beneficiaries and parents such as free medical check-up and medicines, free baptism, common diseases and nutrition education seminars, cooking contests and Christmas parties. The beneficiaries are intended to stay in the feeding program for a minimum of one year or until they reach 12 years old and achieve normal nutritional status . The parents are also required to assist in the feeding program once a week as their counterpart in the program.
In this program, the primary concern is to help the poor malnourished children achieve normal nutritional status by providing traditional but nutritious meals that includes rice, viand, milk, fruit and multivitamins. Through the help of donors and volunteers, the feeding program runs daily except Sundays from 8:00am to 12:00nn and is able to feed more than 350 children in Payatas, Quezon City. Aside from the daily meals, the children beneficiaries were also provided with different activities like catechesis, basic reading & writing, artworks, dance tutorial, movie viewing and playtime. Free medical check-up, medicines and treatments are also provided to the children thru the clinics managed by PAOFI. The beneficiaries are intended to stay in the feeding program for a minimum of one year or more or until they reach their normal nutritional status. The parents are also given seminars and workshops and are also required to assist in the feeding program once a week as their counterpart.
- Operation Timbang and house visits done every January or start of the year
- Parents’ General Orientation every January
- Parents’ seminars like Sanitation and Nutrition Education and seminar on Children’s Common Diseases, Prevention & Treatment
- Children’s summer outing every month April or May
- Nutrition Month Celebration every July whereas Cooking Contest for the parents and program for the children are conducted
- Livelihood Skills Training for Parents
- Free Baptism for unbaptized children every October
- Christmas parties and Birthday celebrations
Brief History of the Feeding Program
In 1991, missionaries of the Sons of Divine Providence Congregation began their work at Mother of Divine Providence Parish, Payatas A, Quezon City. Poverty, malnutrition, poor sanitation, healthcare and illiteracy were the basic challenges sighted in the place.
In 1997, the first feeding center was opened in the parish, catering to more than 50 malnourished children. With its success and impact, another center was opened in Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel on December 1998. In 1999, a feeding center located at St. Joseph the Worker (Litex) Chapel was also opened as they see the need to cater more malnourished children in the area.
In 2007, Payatas Orione Foundation, Inc., (PAOFI) was founded to continue the works of the Congregation for the poor. Since then, 6 more feeding centers have been established and are presently operating in different locations in Payatas: Saint Joseph the Spouse (Molave) Chapel (2007), Sagrada Familia Chapel (2010), San Isidro Labrador Chapel (2010), Sto. Nino Chapel (2011), Nazareno Chapel (2011), St. Benedict Chapel (2015), and 3 centers located in Lucena, Quezon Province. Presently, we have more than 350 children beneficiaries in the feeding program in total of 9 locations.