PCSO launches milk-feeding program

 

Phillippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) Chairperson Margarita P. Juico greets pupils of the Day Care Center in Sitio  Alltop, in Merville Paranaque City during the launching of its first leg  of the Milk  Feeding program for indigent children, July 16, 2012. (JOSEPH MUEGO)

 

The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) launched the first leg of its milk feeding program for indigent children on July 16. 

In coordination with the National Dairy Administration, PCSO will provide free milk to around 150 children of Sitio All Top Compound, Merville, Paranaque City.

The 120-day feeding program is expected to improve the weight and health of the children, aged 24 to 71 months.

This is the first of three parts of the feeding program which will be held in the most depressed areas nationwide where malnourishment among children is prevalent. Other sites chosen for the program are Bahay Toro, Quezon City and Sitio Gasangan, Tondo, Manila.

The beneficiaries’ health will be monitored for six months by the local government, which will submit reports to PCSO.

At the launch, PCSO chairperson Margarita Juico said that this program will not only promote good health but will also give job opportunities to local dairy farmers.

“All dairy products that PCSO distributes will come from local farms; it is the instruction of President Benigno Aquino III to patronize our own Philippine products,” she explained.

Juico also said that milk feeding programs were an initiative of the late president Corazon Aquino, which, during her time, were administered by PCSO with the help of a committee.

“Tita Cory didn’t have a First Gentleman, so she created the Bigay Puso Committee made up of spouses of Cabinet members and wives of commanding generals from the different services of the AFP,” Juico shared.
  “More than two decades has passed since then but the PCSO still follows the late president’s instruction to serve the needy,” she added. ***