More than 1.8 million children are expected to get an additional boost in their nutritional needs as the Department of Social Welfare and Development will start to implement the 13th Feeding Cycle for the Supplementary Feeding Program in the second week of September.

SFP provides food in addition to the regular meals of children enrolled in local government unit-managed Child Development Centers and Supervised Neighborhood Plays.

The program is also part of the Department's contribution to the government's Early Childhood Care and Development Program, and is in line with Republic Act No. 11037 or the "Masustansyang Pagkain para sa Batang Pilipino Act."

For the 13th Feeding Cycle, which will cover the school year  2023 to 2024, undernourished daycare children aged three to five years old will be provided with at least one fortified meal for a period of not less than 120 days in a year.

In the 12th Cycle of the program, which started in August 2022, some 1,933,671 children were served hot meals nationwide.

During the same cycle, 90,262 children enrolled in CDCs and SNPs were served with milk.

"Rest assured that the DSWD will continue to provide technical assistance to our local government counterparts for the efficient implementation of the SFP," DSWD Assistant Secretary for Strategic Communications Romel Lopez said.

"Aside from LGUs, parents and caregivers are also enjoined to participate in the conduct of the SFP to increase their knowledge on nutrition and health education by participating in the preparation of meals sourced from local ingredients and monitoring of the weight of the children," Lopez, who is also DSWD spokesperson, said.