The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) wants the country to make its free meals program for public schoolchildren to cover not only the malnourished ones.

Dipayan Bhattacharyya, deputy country director of WFP Philippines said Tuesday he is recommending that Congress revisit and amend Republic Act 11037, also known as the Masustansyang Pagkain para sa Batang Pilipino Act, to allow the Department of Education to implement a universal school feeding program that targets all children in primary and grade schools. RA 11037 is currently limited to feeding wasted, stunted, underweight and nutritionally at-risk kids in vulnerable areas.

There are about 230 nutritionally backward municipalities in the country covered by the Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Project and these towns should be targetted by universal feeding, according to Bhattacharyya

“And if school feeding program also can converge in those areas and provide universal coverage, I think the overall contribution to improvements in the nutritional status and also improvements in the learning outcome, will see better results,” he said at the UN Philippine press conference on Tuesday.

Bhattacharyya revealed that WFP and the government are piloting a universal school feeding program in a number of schools in Isabela province, Cauayan and also Santiago; Quezon City, and in the Bangsamore Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, where all the children are targeted, not selected children based on wasting, and all the food will be cooked fresh and sourced from local farmers.

“So that means it contributes to the local economy as well. It will also improve the nutritional behavior and knowledge about good nutrition among the school children,” Bhattacharyya added.

The WFP Philippines official also said that funding for a universal feeding program should not be solely borne by the government.

“Our pilot school feeding program” gets financial contribution from LGUs. WFP is providing fortified rice and kitchen construction. And most of those things are coming either from the Department of Education or from the LGU's own budget. So everything doesn't have to come from the national budget,” he said.

 The vibrant private sector in the Philippines can also lend support, he said.

“They can do a lot. They are doing already quite a lot in a number of areas. I think they can do much more,” according to Bhattacharyya.

Meanwhile, the DepEd started covering all children in kindergarten for its school-based feeding program this school year, which is a significant stage to gradual universalization of free meals.

“I hope that this space will continue, at least from Kindergarten to Grade 3, all the school schoolchildren can be covered by 2028 or 2029. That would be something we all should collectively aspire for and that will definitely contribute to improved learning capabilities and capacities,” he added.