Free meals for Baguio’s college students urged

Mayor Benjamin Magalong signed city ordinance no. 96, series of 2023, providing free meals to the city’s youth enrolled in the different higher educational institutions (HEIs) in the Summer Capital, establishing for its purpose a free youth meals program, and appropriating funds therefor.

It aims to contribute to and complement government efforts to reduce or eradicate student hunger and discourage them from disadvantageous, illicit, and illegal activities for alternative sources of income while promoting proper health and nutrition to college students. 

The approved measure appropriates P2,640,000 under the City Social Welfare and Development Office’s (CSWDO) general fund for the first year of its implementation and upon the CSWDO’s recommendation, the fund may be increased but shall not be decreased to its current amount as provided in the ordinance.  It tasks the CSWDO to lead in its implementation.

It cites the 1987 Philippine Constitution which provides that LGUs are mandated to establish and maintain a system of scholarship grants, student loan programs, subsidies, and other incentives that shall be available to deserving students in both public and private schools, especially to the underprivileged.

“Despite all the initiatives of the government to ensure proper nutrition for students, the government has yet to devise a similar program for the youth enrolled in colleges and universities,” the ordinance claims. – Gaby B. Keith