The Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF) and the Department of Health (DOH)-Eastern Visayas formalized its continuing collaboration to strengthen family health and nutrition in the region. On October 29, 2025, ZFF President and Executive Director Austere Panadero and DOH-Eastern Visayas Regional Director Dr. Exuperia Sabalberino signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the implementation of the Pook Malusog Family Stunting Reduction (FaStR) Program. 

The Pook Malusog FaStR Program focuses on supporting families during the first 1,000 days (F1KD) of life—a crucial period for a child’s growth and development. It seeks to strengthen the knowledge and practices of families in preventing stunting, while enhancing the leadership and technical capacity of health and nutrition frontliners.

Through this partnership, the Pook Malusog FaStR Program will be piloted in four municipalities of Eastern Visayas: Gandara and San Jose De Buan in Samar Province, and Mapanas and Lope De Vega in Northern Samar Province from 2025 to 2026.

Under the agreement, ZFF will provide coaching, mentoring, and technical assistance to DOH-Eastern Visayas and the pilot municipalities to guide them in effectively implementing the Pook Malusog FaStR model. By working together to localize the Pook Malusog approach, both institutions aim to build lasting systems of care that empower families, strengthen local leadership, and sustain progress in reducing child stunting across Eastern Visayas.

The Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF) continues to promote shared learning and collaboration through the Pook Malusog Community of Practice (CoP), a platform that enables local government units (LGUs) to exchange experiences, innovations, and lessons on nutrition leadership and governance. 

Held on October 7, 2025, this year’s conference, themed “Healthy Beginnings, Stronger Tomorrows: Advancing Nutrition Resilience from the First 2,000 Days and Beyond,” gathered local chief executives, local legislative council members, health and nutrition action workers, volunteers, private sector partners, representatives from the academe, and national government agencies, including Regional Nutrition Program Coordinators of the National Nutrition Council.

Participants from the five alumni provinces of the Pook Malusog Provincial Nutrition Governance Program (PNGP), Siargao Islands, and Manila shared how leadership and governance can build sustainable nutrition systems that remain strong despite political changes and crises.

The program featured three main plenary discussions and breakout learning sessions:

• Generating Sustained Political Commitment for Nutrition. Shared experiences from the PNGP cohort (Northern Samar, Samar, Basilan, Zamboanga del Norte, and Sarangani) on translating political will into institutionalized systems. This panel discussion highlighted key leadership acts that established institutional arrangements, policies, and plans and budgets that enabled these provinces to reduce malnutrition prevalence and strengthen mechanisms to sustain these improvements on the ground.
• Building Resilient Nutrition Systems, the TRANSFORM (Transdisciplinary Approach for Resilient and Sustainable Communities) Experience. Showcased how leaders in Siargao Islands, Surigao del Norte and the Caraga Region strengthened resilience through people-centered, data-driven approaches, noting that resilience is a continuous process of transformation.
• Beyond the First 1,000 Days, Seamless Pathways to the First 2,000 Days. Featured the municipality of Malungon, Sarangani and the provinces of Basilan and Sarangani, responding to what’s next after F1KD efforts, centering on Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) in ensuring continuity of care and support for children beyond infancy.

• Breakout Sessions: Scaling Innovation, Strengthening Systems. Focused on ZFF’s key programs—Pook Malusog Dashboard, ZFF’s health and nutrition information system (HNIS), and the Family Stunting Reduction (FaStR) program, a family-centered approach to addressing malnutrition. LGU implementers sat on the panel and responded to questions from participants, sharing ongoing learnings and best practices from pilot implementations, as well as their priority actions moving forward.

Discussions showed that political will is critical—it sets direction, drives the right systems, and ensures that budgets are allocated for nutrition. But political will must be backed by more support. It needs to evolve into strong, institutionalized systems that can sustain progress across political terms.

Provincial leaders shared how creating permanent positions for nutrition officers, integrating nutrition into local development plans, and mobilizing diverse sectors can embed accountability and continuity. Municipalities, on the other hand, demonstrated how community co-ownership, data utilization, and frontline worker empowerment ensure that nutrition efforts reach even the most vulnerable families.

Nutrition expert, Dr. Cecilia Acuin, in her synthesis, said that nutrition resilience requires long-term, systemic investment. Improving nutrition outcomes must focus on, quoting Mayor Alfredo Coro II of Del Carmen, Siargao Islands, “the least, the last, and the lost”—families and communities that remain hardest to reach. Dr. Acuin pointed out that while political commitment is vital, equally important are strong governance systems, responsive service delivery, and community ownership. “Our focus should be on building systems, not one-time solutions,” she said, calling for convergence among LGUs and partners.

In his keynote message, Dr. Manuel Dayrit, ZFF Chairman, reminded attendees that the CoP represents “a microcosm of what needs to happen nationally: leaders listening, learning, and acting together.” The conference ended with a hopeful call: when leaders and communities work together, every Filipino child can have a healthy beginning and a stronger tomorrow.

The Department of Science and Technology–Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) held the 2025 National Nutrition Summit on June 5, 2025 at Dusit Thani Manila, unveiling the results of the 2023 Expanded National Nutrition Survey. Covering 36,703 households and 115,651 individuals nationwide, the survey provides updated, evidence-based insights into the country’s nutrition landscape. 

The findings serve as a critical resource for policymakers, program planners, and implementers, offering timely data to guide national and regional efforts. They highlight both the progress made and the persistent challenges in achieving the Philippines’ health and nutrition goals, reaffirming the urgency of sustained, evidence-based, and locally driven action.

The 2023 Expanded National Nutrition Survey reports that stunting among children under five has declined from 26.7% in 2021 to 23.6% in 2023. However, the burden remains significant, with one in five children still affected. Wasting, an indicator of acute malnutrition, continues to be a concern at 5.6% among children under five and 6.8% among those under two.

These figures point to persistent nutrition gaps, particularly during the critical First 1,000 Days (F1KD) of life. Only 50.4% of infants less than 6 months old are exclusively breastfed, and just 13.9% of children aged 6–23 months receive a minimum acceptable diet. Vitamin A deficiency remains a moderate public health concern, particularly among preschool children aged 6 months to 5 years. Additionally, only 26.6% of infants and preschoolers in this age group meet the recommended energy intake, highlighting significant nutritional gaps in early childhood.

The proportion of nutritionally-at-risk pregnant women has risen to 19.1%, signaling growing concern. While prenatal care coverage is improving, only 22.7% complete the WHO-recommended eight visits for comprehensive care. Alarmingly, just 13.7% of pregnant women meet their recommended daily energy intake.

In addition, three in every ten households experience moderate to severe food insecurity, often forced to reduce meal quality or skip meals altogether. Dietary diversity remains low, particularly among low-income families reliant on staple foods like rice, while food waste is rising, with households discarding an average of 130 grams daily, mostly rice, vegetables, and fish.

These findings call for urgent and coordinated actions. Local Government Units (LGUs) are in a strong position to improve community nutrition. Efforts should focus on the following areas: 

1. Prioritize the F1KD and sustain nutrition through the next 1,000 days (up to age five) by strengthening maternal and child nutrition programs, breastfeeding support, complementary feeding services, and timely micronutrient supplementation.
2. Improve access to quality maternal care by ensuring timely and consistent prenatal visits, comprehensive nutrition counseling, and access to essential supplements such as iron, folic acid, and calcium.
3. Invest in local food systems by promoting household food production, improving access to affordable nutritious food, and regulating local food environments. LGUs should integrate nutrition-sensitive agriculture and livelihood programs to enhance dietary diversity and food security, especially in vulnerable communities.
4. Promote data-driven, multisectoral governance by strengthening local nutrition committees, utilizing data for planning and accountability, and coordinating across health, agriculture, and social services to effectively sustain and scale nutrition interventions at the community level.

Meeting our national and global nutrition targets by 2030 demands empowered local leadership, evidence-based decision-making, and integrated, multisectoral action that begins with coordinated efforts at the community level today.

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The Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF)’s Pook Malusog program helps communities support children’s nutrition. Learn more: https://zuelligfoundation.com/programs/nutrition/ 

Author: Rio Fe Del Valle, ZFF Nutrition Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Expert

The Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF) continues to strengthen local nutrition governance through its flagship initiative, Pook Malusog, which empowers provincial leaders to lead multisectoral efforts in addressing malnutrition. 

With its long-standing belief that health and nutrition outcomes improve when local chief executives take ownership, ZFF works closely with governors, mayors, and frontline workers to ensure that leadership, planning, and systems are aligned to support families, especially during the First 1,000 Days (F1KD) of a child’s life.

ZFF shared its experiences and insights during the Webinar on a Weekday  (WoW!) session organized by the Philippine Stakeholders for Nutrition and Dietetics, Inc. (PSND) last July 11, 2025. The webinar, titled “Make or Break! How Will Your Newly Elected Officials Impact Nutrition in Your Community?” aimed to raise awareness on nutrition as a governance issue and encourage stronger local leadership in prioritizing nutrition.

Cecilio Adorna, Senior Fellow at Stratan LLC, opened the session by sharing national-level trends in child wasting and stunting. He pointed out that recent gains—such as the decline of stunting from 33.4% in 2015 to 23.6% in 2023—were driven by increased local government unit (LGU) engagement and policy support. “We should celebrate,” he said, “but also determine what was done right. The giant in the room is the LGU. The more we mobilize and support them, the more we can intensify progress.”

Dr. Joyce Ann Viar, ZFF’s Nutrition Director, stressed the governance gaps that continue to hinder progress: “Malnutrition remains a serious issue. Mataas pa rin po ang stunting and wasting sa bansa. One of the key reasons is the lack of coordination and accountability at the local level.” She shared how ZFF’s Provincial Nutrition Governance Program (PNGP) helps address these gaps by building the capacity of governors and their teams through coaching, training, and Deep Dive—a guided community immersion activity.

Austere Panadero, ZFF President and Executive Director, added, “What nutrition governance really requires is clear leadership. Kung hindi malinaw sa LGU, mahihirapan ang programa.” He urged continued investment in nutrition, citing that visible gains must be sustained and scaled by empowering more LGUs.

Through its Eight Critical Knobs of Nutrition Governance, ZFF promotes a comprehensive, system-wide approach to improving maternal and child nutrition. In Sarangani and Samar, stronger local leadership has led to improved nutrition policies, increased investments, better coordination across departments, and more empowered communities.

“We saw consistent improvement in nutrition outcomes in provinces that prioritized and strengthened these knobs,” said Dr. Viar. “Sana mapalago pa. More LGUs will be inspired or interested to enroll in the program.”

Originally aired via Facebook Live on April 26, 2024, this webinar looked into how leadership and governance helped communities take on the challenge of malnutrition. The event introduced Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF)’s Nutrition Governance Program, Pook Malusog, and shared lessons from local experiences. Dr. Joyce Ann Viar from ZFF led the discussion, followed by Dr. Ma. Esmeralda Silva from UP Manila, who talked about nutrition work in Sarangani.

READ MORE: 

Nourishing Minds, Nurturing Lives: Zuellig Family Foundation Hosts Webinar on Nutrition Governance