More than 2.5 million school children have benefited from the government's milk feeding program, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said Friday, August 13.

Jointly implemented by the Department of Education (DepEd) and DA through its National Dairy Authority (NDA) and the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC)-subordinate agencies, the program has benefited a total of 2,540,087 school children so far.
Dr. Maria Corazon Dumlao, chief of DepEd's Bureau of Learner Support Services-School Health Division said that the NDA and PCC have supplied 75 percent of the target milk volume for the current year.
From April 6 to 28, 2021, the NDA has supplied 46 percent of the total milk requirement for 1,540,087 school children from kindergarten to Grade 6 in various School Division Offices (SDOs) in the country.
On the other hand, the PCC has supplied milk rations to 974,022 students or about 25 percent of DepEd's target beneficiaries.
According to the department, DepEd targets to milk-feed 3.3 million students in more than 34,000 public schools nationwide for the school year 2020 to 2021.
The remaining 822,275 students under the milk feeding program "will likely receive commercial powdered or sterilized milk from other sources," Dumlao said.
"The DA will continue to partner with the DepEd, including local government units and civic society organizations willing to sponsor similar milk feeding programs in their respective areas to benefit more Filipino children nationwide," DA Secretary William Dar said.
"As we conduct more milk feeding programs, we also support and expand the livelihoods of thousands of farmers and their families who are members of carabao and dairy cattle associations across the country," Dar added.
Last school year, a total of 3,138,223 children benefited from the milk component of the school-based feeding program. This was double its target of 1.7 million beneficiaries.
The joint DepEd-DA milk feeding program complies with Republic Act (RA) No. 11037, or the “Masustansyang Pagkain para sa Batang Pilipino Act” signed by President Duterte on June 18, 2020. The program was later integrated into the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.