To: Undersecretaries
Assistant Secretaries
Bureau Directors
Regional Directors
Directors of Services, Centers and Heads of Units
Schools Division/City Superintendents
Heads, Public and Private Elementary and Secondary Schools

1. To ensure consumption of nutritious and safe food in schools, all regional directors, schools superintendents, school heads and other school personnel are hereby directed to observe the following measures:
   1. A Canteen for Every Schools
      Every school must have a school canteen, no matter how small the school and how modest the canteen. In schools, currently without a canteen, the school head, in collaboration with the Parent-Teacher-Community Association (PTCA), should take steps to establish one.
   2. School Canteen-Prepared Foods
   3. School children should be advised to buy food and beverages only at the school canteen and be discouraged from going out of the campus to buy food items during school time. The recess period must be supervised by the class advisers.
   4. Regulation/Control of Supply of Food Items
      Food items for sale at the canteen should include natural or fortified food products that are rich in protein, energy, vitamins and minerals like: rootcrops, rice and corn products in native preparations, fruits and vegetables in season, and fortified foods, bearing the “Sangkap Pinoy” seal. Beverages shall be limited to milk, shakes and juices prepared from fresh fruits and vegetables.
   5. Home-Prepared Snacks
      The school heads and teachers should encourage parents, through the PTCA, to prepare packed snacks for their children to eat during recess time under the supervision of the class adviser.
   6. Involvement of LGU’s/RHU’s
      School officials should seek the assistance of Local Government Units (LGUs) and Rural Health Units (RHUs)/Barangay Health Center (BHCs) in regulating the sale of food and beverages by ambulant vendors. Presidential Decree No. 856 also known as the Code of Sanitation of the Philippines, allows ambulant food vendors to sell only bottled drinks, biscuits and confectionaries and other pre-packed foods.
      They are prohibited to sell food that require utensils.
   7. Food Safety Messages/Concepts
      In order to raise the level consciousness of school children on the importance of food safety, basic messages/concepts shall be integrated in selected subjects in the basic education curriculum.
2. The Health and Nutrition Center shall provide Food Safety Handbook to schools as reference material and shall initiate the orientation training of regional health and nutrition personnel who will likewise take the lead in orienting the division office, and school health personnel and school administrators.
3. Health and nutrition personnel at the regional and division levels and school heads shall intensify advocacy on nutrition and food safety and ensure strict implementation of all appropriate safety measures in the schools.
4. Immediate dissemination of and widest compliance with this Order is directed.

Reference:
DECS Memorandum: No. 373, s. 1996
Allotment: 1—(D.O. 50-97)

To be indicated in the Perpetual Index under the following subjects:
HEALTH EDUCATION
POLICY
PUPILS
SCHOOLS
STUDENTS