Fresh milk to replace sodas in gov’t functions

Thursday 12th of July 2012

NEW CORELLA, Davao del Norte, July 12 (PIA) -- Nutritious fresh milk will soon take the place of soft drinks on official events and social gatherings in the province.

Governor Rodolfo P. del Rosario enjoined local officials to use fresh milk as the official drink being served to guests during official and social functions in the province, particularly in the barangays.

“Starting today, in every official event of the barangays, such as anniversaries and fiestas, I want to see bottles of fresh milk rather than bottles of colas being served to guests,” he said at the inauguration of the dairy processing plant here.

Aside from enjoying their health benefits, del Rosario wanted communities to patronize the dairy products to ensure the sustainability of the P23-million dairy development project being implemented by the United States-based non-government organization Land O’lakes (LOL) and funded by the US Department of Agriculture.

A component of the dairy project, the P11-million processing plant can process 1,500 liters of fresh milk into dairy products that include fresh milk with plain, choco, mango, durian or ube flavors, milk bars and yogurt.

The raw milk will be supplied by the 157 milking cows being tended by 77 farmers who are beneficiaries of the dairy project.

The provincial government put up a counterpart of P3.6 million for the structure, while the municipal government of New Corella provided the lot.

Guests LOL Country Manager Qazi Yawar Naeem, LOL Foundation Director Zaheer Baber and USDA Agriculture Atache Bill Verzani were all optimistic the project will succeed, judging from the strong support of the provincial government, along with the local chief executives of the local government units.

The province also launched its milk-feeding program, as a component of the dairy project, in order to “rehabilitate all severely underweight pre-school children, as well as, severely wasted and stunted children.”

Some 2,251 severely malnourished pre-schoolers around the province were included in the first batch of the 120-day feeding program.

“We will work for the sustainability of this project until such time that malnutrition is eliminated and every single child in the province is well-nourished and healthy,” he said, reiterating the provincial government’s resolve to meet its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals.

The Governor said he is pushing the project in his desire to make Davao del Norte the “Dairy Capital” of the Davao region, if not of the whole country. (Noel Baguio PGO-DavNor)