According to the Antique Provincial Planning and Development Office (PDDO), Antique is already identified as the province in Western Visayas with the highest malnutrition incidence at 26% in 2015.  This has worsened since the pandemic because of the limited access to healthy foods because of strict implementation of border restriction and travel ban.

To address the call of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Memorandum Circular No. 12 Series of 2020, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) - Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) re-developed the Nutribun – a ready-to-eat bread introduced in the 1970s which was distributed to the children from grades 1 to 6 in different public elementary schools during the year 1970 to 1971, primarily to fight against malnutrition. 

The project for the production and distribution of E-Nutribuns will be implemented through the University of Antique Sibalom Technohub, a beneficiary of one of the DOST’s flagship projects called the Community Empowerment Through Science and Technology (CEST).

This undertaking will include the production and distribution of E-Nutribuns to malnourished elementary level children (6-9 years old) from 17 municipalities in the province of Antique to help alleviate malnutrition. Currently, there is an agreement between the University of Antique and the Department of Education Division of Antique for the school-based feeding program amounting to P28,332,720.00.

On the other hand, the DOST-VI project funds amounting to P250,000.00 will cover the 120-day feeding activity, targeting 30 children-beneficiary per municipality.  The Department of Education will be the one to identify the children-beneficiaries, the conduct of the actual feeding, and provide the updates through virtual channels or platforms.  Also, pre-weighing of children-beneficiaries will be conducted before the feeding.

In order to reach the 510 malnourished children-beneficiaries, the production of E-Nutribun will be done two times a week specifically on Monday and Tuesday for 7.5 months with deliveries on Tuesday and Thursday, considering the shelf life (3 days) of the Enhanced Nutribun. 

The production and distribution of E-Nutribuns in the Province of Antique is being implemented through the collaboration of the following: University of Antique (UA) - Sibalom Campus, Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Science and Technology (DOST) VI and the Antique Local Government Unit.  (JJMoleño/DOST VI-KMU)