July is nutrition month and Davao City is taking this seriously by transforming the way we do our school-based feeding program.
Dubbed Project ALAGA (Advancing Learners through Accessible, Guaranteed, and Adequate nutrition), Councilor Antoinette “Petite” Principle, Chairperson of the Davao City Council’s Committee on Education, Science, and Technology, is championing local legislation that aims “to move beyond simply providing food to creating a comprehensive, sustainable, and dignified system for nourishing children.”
The ordinance is rooted in two key principles. First, moving beyond stigma by feeding all children, not only selected children identified as “malnourished,” through a universal feeding program for all learners (from kinder to grade six) in target elementary schools. Second, reframing feeding as an investment, not as an expense.
“If we feed only the identified malnourished children, we risk stigmatizing them and labelling them. Dignity matters,” said Councilor Petite. “And this should not be treated as an expense, but as an investment in children who will stay in school because they no longer feel weak,” she added.
The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) and Davao-based civil society organizations, notably the Mothers for Peace Social Enterprise, Inc. and the Rotary Club of Downtown Davao (RCDD), are all supporting this significant shift in our feeding program.
Mothers for Peace, which started the Davao Food Revolution in 2012 with the Department of Education (DepEd-Davao City) and the City Government of Davao, has been advocating for improved access to affordable healthy food in schools. Through this program, it connects local organic farms to grassroots women in barangays near public schools who will prepare and cook healthy meals and snacks to supply the schools.
With Davao City’s Project ALAGA, Mothers for Peace is reviving the Davao Food Revolution version 2.0 to expand its advocacy promoting universal school feeding using the circular model.
The current school-based feeding program is a linear model that is not sustainable. Budget comes in, food is bought through centralized procurement, children are fed, and waste goes out to the landfills.
It has achieved short-term gains, but these gains do not last. Studies show that only 48 percent of children maintain their improved nutritional status 12 months after the feeding period ends. Worse, only less than half of malnourished children are reached by the program.
Meanwhile, logistical failures plague implementation. DepEd’s cash-based budgeting creates fiscal mismatches. Fiscal year ends in December but the school year does not, leaving no budget for the remainder of the feeding period. Centralized food procurement has led to delivery of spoiled food (e.g., moldy Nutribuns) reported in multiple regions. And teachers are burdened with unpaid kitchen duties.
We cannot afford to repeat these mistakes. The solution is a circular school feeding model — a system that transforms schools from mere consumers of food into producers, educators, and resource-recovery centers. And Davao City is leading this circular food revolution in our schools that makes the program affordable and sustainable.
This year, DepEd Davao City, under the leadership of Schools Division Superintendent Reynante Solitario, is piloting 10 target schools — seven of which are in Marilog and Paquibato to serve indigenous peoples and geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas to be funded by the Local School Board (LSB). The remaining three schools will be adopted by the Rotary Club of Downtown Davao (RCDD) and its other partner Rotary clubs based in Davao City.
Rotarians will mobilize resources to donate needed equipment and utensils for the school kitchens and supplement the healthy food needed by the children (like milk, eggs, fruits, and vitamins) for an entire school year. They will also conduct nutrition education, medical/dental programs in collaboration with private sector partners to provide holistic health intervention for these schools. This is in line with this Rotary year’s theme: “Create Lasting Impact.”
Instead of the usual NutriBuns and milk, hot nutritious lunch meals that are culturally appropriate and planned with a focus on nutrition will be served to all children. All ingredients are locally sourced, ensuring fresh ingredients while supporting farmers cooperatives and the local economy. Central and on-site kitchens will be built and run by dedicated kitchen staff paid through funds from LSB so that teachers will not have the added burden of taking care of the feeding activities.
The “Gulayan sa Paaralan” (school gardens) will be strengthened to supplement food sources and promote sustainable practices. Every school with available land must establish Biodiverse Intensive Gardens growing at least 15 varieties of indigenous vegetables using organic methods. To be truly circular, all leftovers and food scraps must be composted to fertilize school gardens — closing the nutrient loop. Schools then become a waste-to-resource centers.
With Davao developing into an innovative and smart city, it can upgrade DepEd’s SIGLA (System for Intelligent Growth and Learner Anthropometry) that automates the learners’ nutrition screening process. It can create a live dashboard tracking system that not only tracks each child’s weight-for-height monthly, but also school farm yields, and local market prices. The program can then use the data to adjust menus dynamically — if a child is not gaining weight, prescribe a fortified meal variant or pre and probiotic supplements; if a crop fails, shift to available alternatives. Under a circular model, tracking will include the percentage of food sourced locally, school farm productivity, and food waste reduction. Our city’s vibrant startup community can help innovate the current system to track the feeding program’s impact comprehensively.
Community-led central kitchen models have been piloted successfully in the Philippines. The model works because it builds community ownership — parents, teachers, farmers, local officials, and civil society organizations collaborate as equal stakeholders.
The 2026 School-Based Feeding budget of 25.6 billion pesos is historic, more than double the 2025 budget. But historic does not mean sufficient. It does not even guarantee impact. Without fundamental reforms, we risk pouring billions into a system that feeds children today but fails them tomorrow. This increased funding can fall into the same pattern of substandard implementation.
Davao City is embracing the circular model in its feeding program — not as an experiment, but as the new standard. With a circular school feeding program, we can do more than feed hungry children. We can nourish minds, support local farmers, provide livelihood for women who run community kitchens, regenerate our environment, and build a future where every Filipino child has the health to dream and the strength to achieve those dreams.
The funds are allocated. The children are waiting. The model is proven. There is no excuse for delay. Let’s do this all together as one community, Davao!
