One of the much awaited programs under Makati City Mayor Abby Binay's administration, which aims to provide free nutritious snacks to public elementary school students in the city, was finally launched on Thursday, March 23. Dubbed as Project FEED (Food for Excellent Education and Development), Binay explained that the initiative seeks to alleviate hunger and promote healthy eating habits among students, while easing the burden of parents who are struggling to make ends meet. “As a mother myself, I understand the demands of raising children and sending them to school. Through Project FEED, we are hitting two birds with one stone by helping parents with their children’s proper nourishment and enabling them to save for other basic needs,” Binay said. The mayor, together with her husband, Makati City 2nd District Rep. Luis Campos, led the launch of the Project FEED vending machine at the Makati Elementary School where they demonstrated to the students how they can access a variety of snack foods and drinks from a vending machine using a tap card. She said each student will be given a tap card to get one snack food per school day four times a week and one fruit juice drink once a week. According to Binay, the city has allotted P235,000,000 for the said project, which will cover all 25 public elementary schools in the city. One vending machine will be installed in each school, except for those with bigger populations. These are Comembo Elementary School with two vending machines, and Pembo Elementary School and Rizal Elementary School with three vending machines each. Project FEED will give some 42,024 students from Kinder to Grade 6 free access to a banana bar on Mondays, oatmeal choco chip cookie on Tuesdays, cheese muffin on Wednesdays, chocolate fudge brownie on Thursdays, and one juice drink on Fridays. “Project FEED promotes the consumption of nutrient-rich root crops and vegetables disguised as cookies and bread which are appealing to kids,” Binay said. The local chief noted that the snacks were created using Nutriflour developed by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). Nutriflour is a blend of powders made from cassava, sweet potato, moringa/malunggay, squash, and monggo beans. For the juice drink, fresh fruits puree were mixed with vegetable extracts and stevia as natural sweetener. One variant combines pineapple, mango, carrots, and tomato juice, while the other combines pineapple, cucumber and calamansi juice. Binay explained that providing healthy and delicious snacks to students can help ensure that they have the energy and nutrition needed to focus on their studies. “We teamed up with the DOST for this project because we want our students to enjoy their snacks and look forward to eating them. We want them to be energized so that they can focus better on their studies,” Binay said. Project FEED is the latest addition to the city’s Expanded Project FREE (Free Relevant and Excellent Education). During her administration, Mayor Abby has expanded it to include leather and rubber shoes, tumblers, socks, rain gear, dengue and hygiene kits, jackets, and Japan-inspired school bags and uniforms.