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Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
January 8, 2026 | 3:14pm
Fourteen-year-old Maria (not her real name) stays at home in Payatas, Quezon City after she stopped attending school due to her pregnancy, in this photo taken January 17, 2025.
Michael Varcas
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education will provide meals to pregnant students enrolled in public schools for the first time this year, part of a broader expansion of its feeding program that it says targets 4.6 million learners nationwide.
About 140,000 nutritionally at-risk learners beyond Grade 6 — including pregnant students — will receive meals for 180 days under the program, which has an overall budget of P25.7 billion for 2026, according to a DepEd statement Thursday, January 8.
DepEd will coordinate with the Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development, and Department of the Interior and Local Government to provide maternal and child health support alongside the feeding program.
“The data clearly shows that a child cannot learn properly if they are hungry,” Education Secretary Sonny Angara was quoted as saying in the statement. “That’s why we are expanding the School-Based Feeding Program so more learners can receive adequate nutrition.”
The bulk of the program targets early grades: 1.52 million kindergarten students and 1.79 million Grade 1 students will receive meals for 200 days. Another 1.18 million students in Grades 2 to 6 classified as wasted or severely wasted will also get 200 feeding days.
DepEd says it will use an AI-enabled platform called the System for Intelligent Growth and Learner Anthropometry to collect and validate students' health and nutrition data. The department said it will prioritize locally produced food under the Tatak Pinoy Act, while the National Dairy Authority and Philippine Carabao Center will handle milk distribution.
More than 500 Filipino adolescent girls get pregnant and give birth every day, giving the Philippines one of the highest adolescent birth rates in ASEAN, according to data cited by the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) in an earlier report. Babies born to adolescent mothers also face higher risks of low birth weight, preterm birth, and severe neonatal conditions.
A study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies earlier found that stunting occurs from five months of age and worsens up to 25 months, with prevalence rising to 42% among the poorest children by age 2. Children who experienced stunted growth at age 2 show poorer educational outcomes, directly affecting literacy rates.
There is a negative correlation between food insecurity and mathematics performance, PISA 2022 results showed.
