The BES FRIENDS FEEDING PROGRAM feeds elementary pupils of Bagumbayan Elementary School (BES) in Barangay Bagumbayan, Quezon City. It is a personal advocacy that started with a prompting to feed malnourished children.
As a graduate of College of the Holy Spirit Mendiola (HSClass 68), I was taught the values of truth and love. And all the time to listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit which fires our motivation to move with compassion. So move I did.
I started in 2008 feeding 50 kids 3x a week with the help of my family and a few friends. A large part of the sponsors now are my classmates from HS Class 68.
This school year 2020-2021 we are feeding over 1100 kids not only from Bagumbayan Elementary School, but also in 3 more elementary schools: Pura V. Kalaw ES, Project 3 ES, and Fairview ES. In March we will start feeding in Sinag-tala ES.
At the start, we fed older malnourished kids in grades 5 and 6. But because I had read that the degradation of mental capacity due to malnutrition is irreversible at age 5, we started feeding the kids in the lower grades including preschool children and pregnant (unborn children) and lactating mothers (infants).
How do we feed?
At first, the food was cooked by the school’s HE teacher and the dishes washed by parent volunteers. When the number of recipients increased, we employed a full time cook and a kitchen staff of 3. Ingredients were bought fresh every day from the market and cooked in the school’s feeding area as early as 5 am.
Feeding starts at 7am in groups of 30-40 kids. Feeding ends at 3pm. Menu includes pork sinigang, chicken adobo with string beans or eggs, shrimps and vegetables in coconut sauce, chaofan, ground pork with carrots and potatoes, and the like. Since most kids do not like eating vegetables we cut the vegetables very small, or hide them in burger patties and spring rolls. Feeding ends with a dosage of vitamin C.
Some kids go to school without breakfast nor “baon”. So we made a list of these kids and handed them to the school canteen. These kids go to the canteen to claim their snacks during recess.
This year of the pandemic we are giving food packs of 1kilo quality rice, 3 big sachets of powdered milk, and 7 pcs vitamin c. Parents pick them up together with their child’s learning modules once a week.
Where do we get funds?
The funds initially came from just me, my family, and a few friends. I estimated that a rice meal would cost P15. P15x 5days a week x 4 weeks a month. That’s P300 a month per child. P300/month x 10 months June to March is P3000. It costs P3000 to feed a child for the whole school year.
Feeding is dependent on sponsors who donate P3000 for one child. They are assigned a particular child to feed and they can visit the child anytime during the school day.
Other Activities and Benefits
Aside from daily feeding of freshly cooked nutritious and hot rice meals, we have other activities. At the start of the school year, we give each child a school bag bursting with complete school supplies and unlimited refills. We also have dental missions, parenting talks, teen talks, values formation and catechism classes for the kids. We also sponsor the school’s summer camp for reading, science, and math. The additional funds needed for this comes from budget saved for those days when classes are cancelled because of holidays and typhoons and school breaks. But largely it comes from “the multiplication of the bread and fish”.
All kids are also insured against accidents, animal bites, and illnesses including dengue. We started with this insurance when we noticed that almost every year one or two kids would die because the parents had no money to bring them to the hospital right away. With the insurance, 100% of their hospital expense is reimbursed.
The Happiest Day
Every 2nd Saturday of December, we have a Meet and Greet event. The children are very excited to meet their sponsors. The children pray before meals mentioning the names of their sponsors every day and finally there is a chance to see them in person! It is touching to see the children gratefully hugging their sponsors and shyly giving them their handmade cards. Some are laughing, others are moved to tears. But everyone is happy. All the kids receive Christmas gifts. And all bring home a Noche Buena package of spaghetti and meat sauce and fruit salad ingredients for their families.
Effects of the Feeding Program
The kids are weighed and measured at the start and again at the end of the school year. Aside from the weight and height increase, the kids look smart and bright and happy. As the school principal once commented, they now looked like children of well-off families. It is consoling to know that one day these happy and smart children will be the adults, some of them future leaders, of our evolving nation.
Since we started feeding, attendance in the classroom has improved dramatically. Children used to faint from hunger or absent themselves from school. Now children are excited to go to school. It is like having a party every day. They enjoy eating with their friends and eating good food in a clean and pleasant atmosphere.
My Promise
“Salamat po sa pagkain araw araw. Sana po hwag kayong titigil sa pagpapakain sa amin.” This is what they tell me when I visit.
Yes, I will continue feeding. I will feed more and more children in more and more public schools. With love, endless love. And work, tireless work. Always listening to the promptings of the Spirit as I did 12 years ago. Yes, that is my promise. To feed more and more children. That is, as many children as I can get sponsors for!
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BES Friends Feeding Program is privileged to feed the children especially at this difficult time.
To God be the highest and only glory.
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
Most Outstanding Stakeholder
SDO Quezon City
1st Gawad Kaagapay. January 29, Friday, 9am-12nn
Alone I can do nothing.
This award is accepted on behalf of the many sponsors, at first my family and a few friends, then families of our friends and friends of their families and then now kindred spirits who I no longer know personally. This award is also accepted on behalf of the school principals, teachers and nts of BES. Thank you for this award.
Making this speech made me look back to how it all started. The BES Friends Feeding Program. One day I felt a prompting to feed and I promptly told our priest Fr. Odon Francia about it. Fr. Odon was a visiting priest in Eastwood where I lived. And he was the parish priest of San Roque Church in Bagumbayan.
Fr. Odon moved fast. The very next day, he introduced me to the school principal. Thus began a love story now on its 12th year.
In this pandemic, I miss seeing the children. Their faces lit up with excitement receiving their brand new school bags bursting with school supplies and unlimited refills. Rosary catechism. Parenting talks. Teen talks. Orientation on how to claim hospital insurance benefits. Summer camp.
But what I miss most is the highlight of all activities: the Meet & Greet Event where the sponsors come and meet the particular child or pregnant or lactating mother they are feeding. This is a big moment for the kids. To see their sponsors and say to them face to face…Salamat Po.
In the past years my delight was to see the children eating nutritious rice meals cooked early in the morning in school. Although the children started as picky eaters, slowly they developed the taste for good food. They ate their vegetables and no longer discreetly threw them under the table. Because they ate with their classmates, eating was fun too. Soon the children gained weight and looked bright and happy. As children ought to be.
What is my delight now? The parents lining up with face shields and masks, gratefully picking up our food packs of rice, milk or vegetables, and vitamin C tablets for the week. In this pandemic when food is scarce I can imagine their relief receiving the weekly food for their children. I’m guessing this food is now being shared by the whole family.
So where do we go from here? To more schools! This year aside from BES we are feeding in 3 other schools: Kalaw, Fairview, and Project 3. Soon we will start feeding in Sinag-Tala.
How do we get there? With the same combination of Love, endless love, and Work, tireless work. And always, Listening to the promptings. How can we do better? How else can we help? And then acting fast.
Pray with me dear educators, guardians of the children, that the promptings that stirred my heart 12 years ago will never stop.
To God be the highest glory. The only glory.
