Recognizing its role in nation-building as one of the country’s providers of food staples and honoring its malasakit core value, Mega Global, who initially launched the third year of its Mega Bigay Sustansya (MBS) program in July 2021, continues to boost the nutrition of children nationwide as the program has now served a total of 66,694 meals to 881 children in 15 communities across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

The program, which was mounted in partnership with Reach Out Feed Philippines, aimed to support children in six provinces for 60 days. The feeding program will run until November 2021 and will benefit a total of 881 children ages 4-12 through house-to-house delivery of meals every day. The daily meals provided included at least one sardine meal, made using Mega Global’s nutrient-packed high quality sardines.

“Our food products are considered to be one of Filipinos’ staple foods. As such, we recognize our role in providing affordable, accessible and nutrition-filled meals to communities, especially those who need them the most,” Marvin Tiu Lim, Chief Growth and Development Officer of Mega Global said. “Our MBS program was created not only to give them proper nutrition during the program, but also provide them opportunities to sustain it through our leave-behind materials that will help parents provide nutritious meals to their family that is abot-kaya.”

Initial evaluation of the kids show that 79 percent of the beneficiaries have gained a minimum of one kilo up to five kilos after 36 feeding days. These kids are the ones who are religiously present during feeding days, and the ones who are being consistently supported by their parents by getting the meals for the kids and motivating them to finish them.

Apart from Mega Global and ROFP, the barangay officials and dedicated volunteers of the communities play a big role in the implementation of the project. The barangay officials ensure that the manpower for the program is enough, and that they remain safe during the distribution. As for the volunteers, they dedicate themselves to creating delicious meals such as Sardines Lumpia, Miswa with Sardines, Tortang Sardines, etc., everyday, rain or shine.

With malasakit as its core value, Mega Global has initially launched the Mega Bigay Sustansya (MBS) program in 2019 to help children fight malnutrition. Now in its third year, a bigger vision was set to impact more and more Filipinos. The program continues to positively impact the lives of children nationwide through longer program duration and wider reach nationwide. Taking into account the sustainability of the program and its beneficiaries’ improved conditions, Mega Global has partnered with Adarna House to produce a recipe workbook that families can use as reference when choosing affordable but nutritious food.

Mega Global hopes to continue its Mega Bigay Sustansya program in the years to come, reaching more and more Filipinos in need, and spreading the gift of nutrition one can of sardines at a time.