Keeping the Health Up in Two Years

The families living in the villages also had to adjust their meal plans for the kids, and consequently, the children’s eating habits have changed. How do the families in the villages adapt to the change in the children’s eating habits? 

Affordable but still Healthy 

Food planning became a bit of a challenge when the pandemic came around. Cebu’s City Nutritionist Ms. Alyanna Isabel Seville noted that many households faced several challenges in nutritional planning when the pandemic started. In her words: “Bridging the gap between the budget and the provision of healthy meals must be taken into consideration.” Ensuring the children’s health to prevent getting COVID while staying within budget is important in meal planning. 

Before the pandemic, most food products were easier to buy. These include fresh meats, rice, fruits, and vegetables, which they were all able to buy in bulk within their supposed budgets. But then they became a bit more difficult to buy, so they had to settle for alternatives. 

The SOS mothers prioritize buying rice and vegetables to save money, and they switched to cheaper food products. For example, they buy pork instead of beef, and they buy fish and eggs instead of chicken. When the pandemic hit, there also seemed to be a higher consumption of fruit. As one mother noted on the change in their food consumption in their home: “What we eat didn’t change. We just added fruit because we buy apples by the carton to conserve our monthly budget.” 

Like before, all the children in the village still eat three times a day. But their menu and their eating habits went through some changes to adapt to the pandemic’s situation. 

Moving Along for Good Health 

More than before, it’s important for children to know the importance of eating and staying healthy. For one, the mothers ensure to inform and explain to the children why eating vegetables is important, including the basic food pyramid. Making them eat healthily does not stop at information only. The children also help with food preparation to motivate them further to eat vegetables. 

Exercise and movement are also important in staying healthy. With limited activities that can be done in the pandemic, the families in the villages have to find a way to keep moving. One way to keep the family moving is gardening. Every family house in the villages has a vegetable garden patch where they also get their food, supplementing their groceries. They also ensure that the children get regular exercise. 

As a result, the children’s height and weight improved. Another mother noted that “They’ve gotten bigger appetite and they’re more conscious of their health.” The children are also more aware and conscious of the food they eat so that they can avoid being sick. Though the pandemic is slowing down, keeping up a healthy lifestyle is still important even when the risks imposed by the virus are gone. 

We are still ways away from the pandemic’s end. You can help families stay healthy during these times by donating through sosphilippines.org/donate.