Many Filipino parents eat less so their children can have more food.
Many too go for credit , barter for food or ask from relatives and neighbors to make ends meet on the dinner table.
Six in 10 households have experienced hunger to the point that it compromised adequate nutrition.
This is the conclusion of the Rapid Nutrition Assessment Survey (RNAS) conducted by the Department of Science and Technology’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI).
The survey, conducted in November and December last year, showed 62.1 percent of surveyed households which reported they experienced moderate to severe food insecurity.
The FNRI defines food insecurity as the state in which people are at risk or actually suffering from inadequate consumption to meet nutritional requirements.
Food insecurity is a result of the physical unavailability of food, people’s lack of social or economic access to adequate food, and/or inadequate food utilization, according to the Global Forum on Food Security of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
The FNRI survey found food security highest in households with children (seven out of 10) and households with pregnant members (eight out of 10).
The survey revealed that food insecurity peaked between April and May 2020 during the enhanced community quarantine lockdowns.
Food-insecure families adapted through various coping strategies to avail of food during the pandemic.
These included purchasing of food on credit (71.7 percent), borrowing food from relatives and/or neighbors (66.3 percent), through barter (30.2 percent), while some adults reported that they limited their food intake in favor of children (21.1 percent).
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to enormously impact the country’s economic and healthcare systems and also the nutritional and food security status of Filipinos, the FNRI said.
The RNAS provides snapshots of the nutrition and food security situation of Filipinos during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Provinces and highly urbanized cities covered by the RNAS were clustered into the major island groups of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, and categorized further into low-, medium- and high-risk COVID-19 infection.
This grouping was based on the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases classification issued in July 2020, according to the number of COVID-19 positive cases reported by the Department of Health as of July 16, 2020.
The RNAS covered a total of 5,717 households with 7,240 individuals, with mothers or caregivers as respondents on behalf of their young children.
Even before the pandemic, many households went hungry.
Historically, there has been a significant increase in the percentage of food-insecure households from 2018 to 2019, based on FNRI’s Expanded National Nutrition Survey (ENNS).
The ENNS showed that food-insecure households increased to 64.1 percent in 2019 from 53.9 percent in 2018.
Food insecurity was also higher in rural areas, male-headed households, poor households, households with heads with lower educational attainment, and households engaged in agriculture, the ENNS revealed.
Proper nutrition is essential especially during pandemics and calamities to stay healthy by boosting immunity and avoiding infections from COVID-19 and other diseases.
As part of FNRI’s interventions to help mitigate food insecurity, the Institute implements programs like the Malnutrition Reduction Program, an integrated intervention strategy involving nutrition education and transfer of food technologies through technology transfer programs.
FNRI is promoting the “Oh My Gulay!” which models the establishment of edible gardens in offices in urban settings. – Paul Icamna
