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Undernutrition remains a major health problem among children 0 to 5 years old in ourcountry. One of the targets aligned with the MDG is that by 2015 the prevalence ofunderweight for age should be reduced to 13.7% as compared to the baseline of 27.3% in1990. Thus far, the government has observed a prevalence of undernourishment at 20.6%in 2008. For this reason, the government and the national nutrition council is stepping upits drive to eradicate food poverty and malnutrition through various programs. One of

these programs is the Home, School, Community Food Production Program.

The program looks at the malnutrition problem as caused by multiple factors and as suchutilizes a more comprehensive approach to address the problem. In our country,malnutrition is primarily caused by infectious diseases and inadequate food intake.

As a result of undernourishment, the physical and mental development of these childrenget impaired. The poor physical condition predisposes their child to recurring illnesses asit doesnt have the full physiological capacity to fight off infection. In our country, childrenunder 5 years old are commonly afflicted with respiratory tract infection and diarrhea.These conditions can easily be treated if children are well nourished. But because ofmalnutrition, children die as a result of these diseases. Moreover, their mentaldevelopment is hampered because hungry children cannot focus on school work andlessons. In the children are forced to drop out from school because their parents thinkthey cannot do well in school or they are tasked by their parents to help in augmenting theincome of their family. This feeds on to the vicious cycle of unemployment and poverty.

According to the FAO, one of the immediate causes of undernourishment is recurringinfectious diseases or poor health. The health status of 0-5 year old children issignificantly influenced by insufficient health services, limited access to health care,inadequate supply of potable water, prevalence of unhygienic practices and poor

sanitation, and poor childrearing practices. These factors can be compressed to two keyfactors which is lack of knowledge/low educational attainment and lack of resources suchas facilities, trainings, and money.

The other immediate cause of malnutrition is inadequate food intake or food insecurity.According to a study conducted by the FNRI (2008), Filipinos tend to skip meals, reduceportion sizes, and sometimes doesnt eat a single meal the entire day because of scarcity.The inability of the head of the family to provide adequate amount of nutritious food isinfluenced by average income of the household, family size, and insufficient foodproduction. The factors related to the head of the family are key determinants of foodsecurity in the family. Families whose household heads are educated are not concerned

with food shortage as they earn more than enough to provide the basic food needs of thefamily. On the other hand, household heads who works as a contractual employee suchas construction workers and other minimum wage earners tend to suffer from foodinadequacy. The amount required to provide basic food to a family of 5 is around PHP6000.00 which is two thirds of the monthly income of a minimum wage earner. With othermonthly expenses such as rent, utilities, transportation, and allowance of children, aconstruction worker wont be able to provide adequate food for his family. Another factorthat compounds the problem of food insecurity is a large family size. According to theFNRI, food insecurity increases sharply when family size is 5 or higher. Lastly,insufficiency in food production reduces the buying power of the peso, increases food

inflation and contributes to limited food availability for the family. Low local food productiondrives the prices of food commodities upward because of the laws of supply and demand.

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In conclusion, malnutrition is a multidisciplinary problem and the problem tree helps usdistinguish how these multiple factors come together to bring about undernourishmentamong children 0-5 years old. The solution to malnutrition should be an integratedmultidisciplinary approach that will address lack of knowledge/low educational attainment,lack of resources, large family size, alternative sources of income, and insufficient foodproduction. It is important to identify these determinants so that the Home, School,

Community Food Production Program can be evaluated based on how the programaddressed these factors.