The 10-year City Nutrition Action Officer (CNAO) of Bayugan City, Ms. Ana Jane Garcia, is one of the contenders for this year’s search for Caraga Regional Outstanding City/ Municipal Nutrition Action Officer.

On 14 September 2022, the Regional Nutrition Evaluation Team (RNET) evaluated the CNAO at City Hall in Bayugan City. Part of the evaluation was an interview and desk review validation using the Monitoring and Evaluation of Local Level Plan Implementation (MELLPI) Protocol tool.

The 50-year-old CNAO is a Registered Midwife by profession, married and blessed with two loving children.

In 2012, the former Mayor of Bayugan City appointed Ms. Ana Jane Garcia as the City Nutrition Action Officer to handle the nutrition programs of Bayugan.

As anew CNAO she faced many challenges, there were around 1500 pre-school children in the city who were malnourished. Learning this, she doubted herself if she could handle the program, but through the full support of local government unit, the City Nutrition Committee (CNC), and the city mayor, she regained her commitment and move again to fulfill her role.

In the span of ten years, she attended various trainings to learn strategies on how to alleviate the malnutrition problem. She coordinated the implementation of different nutrition programs, and along with better implementation, Bayugan City received the Green Banner Award for three consecutive years (2014-2016) and was awarded as Consistent Regional Outstanding Winner for Nutrition or CROWN in 2017 and 2018.

She considered these awards as her greatest accomplishments. CNAO Garcia, also received multiple plaques of recognition and appreciation as a resource speaker and as an effective nutrition program manager.

Based on her experiences, she concluded that the easiest programs to conduct under the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) were those under Infant and Young Child Feeding. The most difficult is the program Nutrition in Emergencies.

Through time, with the eagerness of CNAO Garcia, the malnutrition rate of Bayugan City was gradually reduced, from 1500 malnourished children to 412 children.

She believed that even a big problem can be solved provided that everyone supports for the nutrition advocacy. #RRJGabaisen/ MPRayco