CABARROGUIS, Quirino, May 1 (PIA)—As it awaits the coming of the Regional Nutrition Evaluation Team (RNET) next week, the Provincial Nutrition Committee of this province has nothing but hopes for the most coveted First Year Consistent Regional Outstanding Winner in Nutrition (Crown) maintenance award.

Luningning Pacudan, provincial nutrition officer, said the PNC and the different Municipal Nutrition Committees visited most of the 132 barangays to conduct actual weighing, site visitation of nutrition projects, nutrition counseling and monitoring of malnourished children.

“We and our partner agencies worked hard to improve the nutritional status of the populace and we are happy that through the various nutrition programs we implemented, we were able to reduce the number of underweight and severely underweight pre-schoolers from 605 in 2012 to 548 this year,” Pacudan said.

Likewise, the number of wasted and severely wasted school children was reduced from 1,492 during school year 2011-2012 to 1,352 during the recent school year.

The RNET will start its annual Monitoring and Evaluation of Local Level Plan Implementation (MELLPI) for Quirino on May 6-8, 2013.
The evaluation covers all municipalities where nutrition committees will be assessed how they implemented their Nutrition Action Plans by looking into the nutritional status, actual visitations, validation weighing of sample preschoolers review records of Municipal Nutrition Committee and Barangay Nutrition Committee.

“They (evaluators) will also visit barangay projects such as livelihood projects, communal and demo gardens, waste management projects, as well as interview the MNC and Barangay Nutrition Committee members.

Pacudan explained that the nutritional status of every municipality determines the impact of how the local government units implement programs in support to nutrition.