The Negrense Volunteers for Change signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Mayor Alfredo Abelardo “Albee” Benitez for the implementation of a MingoMeals Nutrition Program for 200 malnourished Bacolod children sponsored by the Angat Buhay project arm of former vice president Leni Robredo’s Angat Pinas Inc. at the Bacolod City Government Center on Thursday, September 15.
The MOA was signed by Benitez, Councilor Kalaw Puentevella and Dr. Rosalie de Ocampo – City Nutrition Action Officer, for the city government, and by NVC president Millie Kilayko and trustee Tima Lacson.
Local Angat Buhay volunteers will partner with the Barangay Nutrition Scholars deputized by the Bacolod City Nutrition Action Office on the ground by assisting to monitor the children by helping provide activities with the target children and mothers, Kilayko said.
“Both the NVC Foundation team and the Angat Buhay volunteers are excited to start working with our ground partners from the City Nutrition Action Office,” she added.
She said when she first sent the mayor a text message to introduce the project and ask for his clearance to coordinate with the City’s Nutrition staff, she expected the process to take at least a week.
“But in three minutes I got a call from Bacolod’s Nutrition Coordinator who was even on leave. In a few days, I received the report we needed and it was a weekend. With that kind of efficiency and dedication from energized government partners, we are the inspired private sector counterparts”, Kilayko said.
NVC Foundation’s Nutrition Program for undernourished children runs for six months, using primarily the Mingo Meals, a complementary food manufactured the foundation in its Bacolod based government accredited manufacturing plant, Kilayko said.
NVC has implemented its nutrition program for 48,563 children in 60 provinces across the country to date and has served more than 22 million Mingo Meals both for the program as well as for emergency relief, she added.*