Teachers can tell when students arrive at school hungry. The children are listless, unfocused, and often fall sick. The Liceo de Bethlehem elementary school sits in a tropical island community of Laoang, the Philippines, where Chalice’s Samar site serves. Many families in the community live below the poverty line, and food insecurity is a growing problem. Most families rely on a small-scale livelihood, such as fishing and coconut farming, to sustain their family’s needs.
In response, the school launched a meal program. For more than a decade, generous Chalice donors have been keeping the kitchens stocked and the students fueled. More recently, Chalice introduced a monthly giving program, Ladles and Love, to support nutrition programs like Samar’s. Chalice’s nutrition programs focus on each country, considering its own needs, as each community is different.
“Catering the nutrition of the small children is like investing for their good future,” says Maricel, Samar site director. “It is the springboard in improving the health and academic status of the children. The continuous school feeding program and other related activities have brought an enormous positive impact.”
The Liceo’s 409 students eat a nutritious breakfast and lunch every school day. That works out to about 18,045 meals served, each quarter. Maricel says “Good meals keep them awake and energized.”
“The children are served with nutritious lunch every day from Monday to Friday with vegetables as the main ingredients mixed with chicken, fish, and meat,” Maricel says. Children with greater nutritional needs receive milk or supplementary food.
Through the program, site staff also deliver food hampers to two sponsored elders and two families with children with disabilities who are not enrolled at the Liceo. These deliveries are a great relief to the elders and families, and robust nutrition helps them stay strong and fight off illnesses.
Every month, staff monitor and evaluate the height, weight, and nutritional progress of the children. Every quarter, they visit the children’s and elders’ homes to check up on the health and hygiene of the families and offer suggestions for improvement.
To ensure that healthy nutrition lasts well after the children graduate, the staff run regular workshops for parents and students to support life-long healthy habits. Each year, they teach parents how to make the most of the food available to them, how to improve their backyard gardens, preservation, and food handling/safety. This year, they also discussed the health benefits of vegetables, and perhaps more importantly, how to cook vegetable dishes that are appealing to children.
“Children’s choice of food has improved,” says Maricel. “They are not just fed; their understanding of the entire program and its long-term goal is discussed with them often.”
“Children’s performances and health improvements continue to progress,” she says. “The nutrition program helped bring out the champion in them.”
Become a Lunch Buddy through our monthly giving program to fight hunger and help students thrive in the classroom.