A Special Project to Celebrate Nutrition Month

July is National Nutrition Month in the Philippines and during this month, we kicked off a special project to feed Mingo Meals to more kids. We enlisted the help of two Young NVC Volunteers for this. Martina and Poorna worked together to organize Write to Fight Hunger. This was an essay writing contest open to the youth (9-18 years old). While the beneficiaries of this project are in the Philippines, we invited young writers from all over the world to join the contest.

 

The organizers whittled down the entries to the Top 5 and our esteemed judges deliberated on the winner.

And We Have a Winner!

After careful consideration, the essay by Mikaia Raine (Mika) Araneta Sanchez came out on top! We will be feeding five children Mingo Meals for six months in Mika’s name.

Our first runner up is 15-year old Lorenzo Franco who has been finding ways to help fight hunger in his community ever since he was a young child. We will be feeding one child for six months in Lorenzo’s name.
We will also be feeding one child in each of the names of our other finalists: Anthea, Erin and Lexi. Congratulations to all of you for making it to the Top 5!

Meet the Judges

We would like to extend our gratitude to our esteemed judges who took time out of their busy schedules to help us select our winner.
Jeanette C. Patindol is an award-winning author and former professor. She was awarded the Philippine Board on Books for Young People’s (PBBY) Alfredo Salanga Prize for Children’s Literature twice.
Pinky Concha Colmenares is a long time journalist. She is currently Executive Editor and an opinion columnist of Manila Bulletin. She authored several books and was the founding editor of The Manila Bulletin’s CRUISING, a monthly glossy magazine on motor travel.
Carla P. Gomez is currently with Digicast Negros and is a correspondent for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. She was awardee by Silliman University for outstanding contributions in the field of community journalism. She has authored biographies of accomplished individuals.
Therese Ng is a Communications consultant for the Asian Development Bank with more than 20 years of experience as a professional in digital media communications with clients in different parts of the world. She is the Vice President of NVC Foundation, Inc.

Additional Thanks

We would like to say thank you to our NVC Youth Volunteers Poorna Chakraborty and Martina Jacinto for organizing this contest. Thank you as well to all the contestants for participating in this endeavor and for sharing their ideas with us. We enjoyed reading your essays and were happy to learn that so many young people are interested in community development and nation building!
Because of this contest, we will be able to feed six children Mingo Meals for six months! With prizes such as these, it feels like everyone walks away a winner!