A million poor and underprivileged Filipino families struggling to feed and educate their children benefited from a massive school feeding program undertaken by the Arroyo administration during the height of the global oil and rice crises last year, the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) announced recently.

NAPC Secretary Domingo F. Panganiban said that some 1.04 million Filipino families received rations of rice under the Food-for-School Program (FSP) in 2008 following President Arroyo’s directive for all government agencies to step up efforts to mitigate the adverse effects of the global oil and food crises on the welfare of the poor.

“The FSP effort, which is implemented under the leadership of President Arroyo, social welfare secretary Esparanza Cabral and Secretary Jesli Lapus of the Department of Education (DepEd), was among the many government initiatives that helped poor families cope with higher fuel and food prices last year,” Panganiban said.

He said FSP beneficiary families that ensure the regular attendance of their children in public schools and state-run daycare centers are entitled to a free kilogram of rice from the National Food Authority (NFA) for each of the 13 days covered by the program.

“Some 826, 815 families with children attending Grade 1 classes in Deped supervised public schools have already received rations of rice under the FSP,” Panganiban said.

The NAPC chief said that another 214, 972 children attending classes in day care centers run by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) have also received rice rations under the program.

“The President was deeply concerned over the difficulties confronted by the poor when both the price of fuel and food saw record increases last year. That is why both the DepEd and the DSWD worked double time to see to the implementation of the FSP,” Panganiban disclosed.

A report by the National Nutrition Council (NNC) to NAPC indicates that the government has already accomplished 90% of its targeted distribution under the first phase of the FSP for the current school year. The same report says that the program covers pupils in pre-school and Grade 1.

Panganiban said the current FSP covers the nation’s top 20 food-poor provinces, 21 hotspots in the National Capital Region, and the 100 poorest municipalities in the country.