Last August 24, Coca Cola and the government of Quezon Province headed by Governor David C. Suarez renewed their partnership in fighting anemia and iron deficiency among the elementary and day care centers in their province. With the help of Coca Cola’s NutriJuice, an iron fortified juice that is distributed for free in most of the public schools in the Philippines it will help the students.
NutriJuice is an orange juice drink in a tetra pack packaging. It fortified with iron, zinc, lysine and vitamins A and C. It is created to cater to school children in different regions to address the high prevalence of iron-deficiency anemia (IDA). IDA is one of the causes of children’s slow mental and physical development along with their learning ability. With the study done in 2006 at the Pinaglabanan Elementary School in San Juan, NutriJuice improved the nutritional status of the underweight, anemic and normal school children. The study was conducted with 300 students. The results were; it reduced anemia among iron depleted children, iron stores of all children supplemented with fortified juice were higher than those who had non-fortified juice and the fortified juice had significantly increased the weight and height of both the anemic and underweight children.
The renewal of partnership includes activities of the Day Care Center workers who worked hard in nurturing the children of Quezon Province. They presented some artworks that is made from the NutriJuice tetra packs and their basic educational kits they use in teaching pre-school students. Aside from Quezon Provice, Nutrijuice were also distributed in Leyte, Zambales, Davao, Palawan, Bukidnon, Marikina, Pasig and so other regions. The said partnership was done with the help of Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (FNRI-DOST) and the project started since September 2005 and now partnering with the local government, and regional offices of Department of Education.
