CHILDS PROPER NUTRITION IS VITAL

One Sunday morning, I was able to go out at the park with a friend. There, we witnessed a child collapsed just in front of us while walking. She is so thin; with dirty clothes seem like a street kid. We rushed to her to see what had happened. Just in time, a man, probably a nurse who was there that time carries her to the nearest food chain with us and checks her vital signs. A minute later, the girl slowly came to her senses, so we give her a water to drink as ordered by the nurse. After that, the man asked the girl why she breakdown. She said, “I was so hungry because I did not eat this morning.”

How could a parent let their child go outside the house with an empty stomach?

With everything inching beyond a family’s budget reach, we are forced to compromise with the most modifiable commodity of daily living-food and, essentially, proper nutrition.

What makes it sadder is, when there is insufficient food on the table of those poor families, the little ones among them, the children, are often ones to suffer the most. Growing up requires eating ample portions of the proper food-carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, along with micronutrients like vitamins and minerals. As it is, many children go hungry and become malnourished.

Whenever possible, therefore, every effort must be exerted to see it that all children do not have to go through such privation.

The importance of proper nutrition should be ingrained in all- a good diet will have beneficial effects on one’s health, preventing growth deformities and common diseases like beriberi, diabetes, and heart disease. Moreover, it should be afforded to all children. How a youth grow up and develop to become an upright and productive member of a society depends in large part on what they eat. A well-fed child would have the attributes to absorb and acquire all the necessary knowledge and skills to subsist.

Developed countries see the value of having a ‘school lunch program’ subsidized or financed by their governments. But here in the country where I live, it seems the government is incapable of doing so, even if just to assure a stable rice supply, other sectors willing to be tapped should generously step in and adopt schools they deem in need of a feeding program. A lot of socio-civic organizations out there are in search of a worthwhile project. Would feeding and developing future pillars of society interest you?

You might not be able to feed all the children in a society but we do not know what a few loaves and fishes could do. You could be the answer to a child’s problem regarding his or her health condition. You could be a hero in saving one’s life through simple food donation.