CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga (PIA) -- National Nutrition Council (NNC) Central Luzon convened nutrition advocates and health workers to kick off the month-long celebration of the 48th  Nutrition Month.
 
With the theme “New normal na nutrisyon, sama-samang gawan ng solusyon”, the celebration primarily calls for collective effort to improve nutrition as the country moves forward to a better new normal.
 
“Through this celebration, we want to raise awareness on the importance of nutrition in building resiliency and recovery from the [Covid-19] pandemic. We can do this by engaging various sectors and the public in various activities that promote nutrition,” NNC Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Ana Maria Rosaldo explained.
 
This year’s celebration also aims to encourage decision-makers to ensure that  nutrition is part of the development agenda. 
 
Rosaldo said that good nutrition is key to build immunity against illnesses and infections, and that promotion of good nutrition must be part of the pandemic resilience strategies. 
 
“With this, we want to stimulate discussions among stakeholders on how to build back better the design, delivery, and scale-up of nutrition interventions. We also want to solicit the support of local chief executives to ensure the formulation of their local nutrition action plans and make sure that there is funding to really implement what has been planned, and that they establish local nutrition action office with plantilla positions in the local government who will focus on addressing nutrition-related problems in their locality,” the NNC official said. 
 
The month-long celebration will include a webinar on food labelling and food safety; film-making competition; launching of the regional shepherding initiative; and advocacy workshops with various decision-makers and leaders to integrate nutrition in their annual investment plan. (CLJD/MJSC-PIA 3)