TL;DR: The fruits-and-vegetables theme of Nutrition Month is not decoration. DepEd Order No. 13, s. 2017 classifies fresh fruits, preferably those in season and green leafy and yellow vegetables in the green category, which the order says should always be available in the school canteen. One hundred per cent fresh fruit juice is yellow, served once or twice a week only. Juice with added sugar and fruit canned in heavy syrup are red, not recommended at all. Behind the canteen sit two programmes: Gulayan sa Paaralan, launched by DepEd Memorandum No. 293, s. 2007, and the School-Based Feeding Program under DepEd Order No. 013, s. 2026, whose cycle menus are to promote indigenous vegetables. Nutrition Month itself is fixed for July by Presidential Decree No. 491, s. 1974, and the annual theme belongs to the National Nutrition Council, not to DepEd.
Search for Nutrition Month fruits and vegetables and you will mostly find artwork. This page is the other half: what the rules actually say about fruits and vegetables in a Philippine school, which issuance says it, and how the July campaign connects to the canteen, the garden and the feeding programme that operate all year. We do not have a poster, a chart or a printable, and the closing section explains where those genuinely come from.
The Month, and Who Owns the Theme
July is Nutrition Month by law. Section 7 of Presidential Decree No. 491, s. 1974, the Nutrition Act of the Philippines, designates it, and the same decree created the National Nutrition Council, the country's highest policymaking and coordinating body on nutrition. Annex D of DepEd Order No. 009, s. 2026 carries Nutrition Month in DepEd's own Calendar of Legislated Activities and Celebrations, dated 1 to 31 July, citing PD 491, with the stated intention of creating greater awareness among the Filipino people on the importance of nutrition.
The theme belongs to the NNC, not to DepEd, and it changes every year. The 52nd National Nutrition Month in July 2026 ran under the overarching theme Sa PPAN: Sama-sama sa Nutrisyong Sapat Para sa Lahat! with the sub-theme Nutrisyon at Kalikasan, Ating Pangalagaan!, which DepEd regional memoranda describe as emphasising the connection between nutrition and environmental protection with a focus on climate action.
That sub-theme is why the fruits-and-vegetables angle carried extra weight in 2026. The campaign framing is that food production and food supply are climate-exposed, and that what a school grows and serves sits inside that system. Because the sub-theme is dated to one campaign year, check the current NNC announcement and your division memorandum before anything gets printed. Our Nutrition Month theme guide explains the two-layer theme structure and how to verify which one is current, and our Nutrition Month guide covers the observance as a whole.
The Canteen Rule: Green, Yellow, Red
The operative document for what a school may serve is DepEd Order No. 13, s. 2017, the Policy and Guidelines on Healthy Food and Beverage Choices in Schools and in DepEd Offices. It sorts everything into three categories, and the sorting is where fruits and vegetables earn their place.
Green foods and drinks are those that should always be available in the canteen. The order describes them as the best choices for a healthy school canteen, containing a wide range of nutrients and generally low in saturated and trans fat, sugar and salt. Under body-regulating foods, the green list names:
- Fresh fruits, preferably those in season
- Green, leafy, and yellow vegetables
Yellow foods and drinks contain some nutrients but also large amounts of saturated or trans fat, sugar or salt, and may contribute excess calories in quantity. They may be served once or twice a week only, in smaller servings, and should be less prominent on the menu. Relevant here: 100 per cent fresh fruit juices sit in yellow, as do stir-fried vegetables.
Red foods and drinks are not recommended in schools. The red list includes processed fruit or vegetable juice with added sugar, powdered juice drinks and sweetened waters, fruit canned in heavy syrup, and sweetened or deep-fried fruits and vegetables.
| Item | Category | What that means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh fruit, in season | Green | Should always be available |
| Green leafy and yellow vegetables | Green | Should always be available |
| 100 per cent fresh fruit juice | Yellow | Once or twice a week, smaller servings |
| Stir-fried vegetables | Yellow | Once or twice a week, smaller servings |
| Juice with added sugar, powdered juice drinks | Red | Not recommended |
| Fruit canned in heavy syrup | Red | Not recommended |
The lesson buried in that table is the one worth teaching in July: a fruit is not automatically a green food. Processing is what moves it. The same mango is green fresh, yellow as pure juice, and red canned in syrup. That single example does more work than a slogan.
DO 13, s. 2017 also lets schools and offices run local initiatives, and names five by way of example: Meatless Monday, Vegie-Tuesday, Native Wednesday, Fibrous Thursday and Fishy Friday. These are permitted local practice, not national requirements.
Two further provisions people forget. Schools are to advise parents and guardians on the food and drink sent as baon, and learners are not to bring unhealthy food and drink to school. And canteens must comply with DepEd Order No. 10, s. 2016 on the Comprehensive Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools programme, which requires clean and safe drinking water, handwashing facilities, safe food handling, clean utensils, waste segregation and a clean well-ventilated eating area. Our WinS programme guide covers that side.
Gulayan sa Paaralan: Where the Vegetables Come From
DepEd Memorandum No. 293, s. 2007, titled Gulayan sa Paaralan and issued 27 July 2007, set up the school garden programme. Its stated objectives are specific:
- raise public consciousness on the health, nutritional and economic benefits of school, household and community gardens
- establish school gardens to serve as the food basket or main source of commodities to sustain supplementary feeding
- intensify production of selected varieties of fruits and vegetables rich in protein, calories, vitamins and minerals to improve child nutrition
- showcase small-scale food production models that households and communities can replicate
- inculcate among learners the values of good health and nutrition, industry, love of labour and caring for others
The memorandum directs implementation in all public elementary and secondary schools with ample or limited areas, in rural or even urban settings, using organic gardening technologies such as Bio-Intensive Gardening and Food Always in the Home. It names the crops by nutritional purpose: legumes for protein, rootcrops for energy, and leafy greens for vitamin A and iron, listing malunggay, saluyot, gabi leaves, kangkong, kulitis, alugbati and pechay. Expenses are charged to regular MOOE, savings or donations.
Note the ordering of the objectives. The garden is not primarily a lesson about plants; it is the supply line for feeding. That is the connection Nutrition Month is meant to make visible.
The Feeding Programme It Feeds
The national feeding programme was institutionalised by Republic Act No. 11037, the Masustansyang Pagkain para sa Batang Pilipino Act. DepEd's current implementing issuance is DepEd Order No. 013, s. 2026, the Institutional Guidelines on the Implementation of the School-Based Feeding Program.
Its shape, in the order's own terms:
- the SBFP runs for a minimum of 120 feeding days, extendable up to a maximum of 220 subject to funds and partnerships with LGUs, NGOs and other stakeholders
- for the current school year, fortified meals are provided for 200 feeding days, adjustable subject to funding and to global and domestic conditions
- a fortified meal is either a freshly prepared hot meal with deliberately increased micronutrient content supplying at least one third of the daily requirement based on the Philippine Dietary Reference Intake, or a nutritious food product meeting the same standards
- cycle menus are to be reviewed and localised to reflect locally available, religiously and culturally acceptable and cost-efficient ingredients, and should promote the inclusion of indigenous vegetables and locally available food products to enhance nutritional value, sustainability and cultural relevance
That last clause is the policy hook connecting the garden, the canteen and the July theme. Our guide to School Form 8, the learner health and nutrition report, covers how nutritional status is recorded in the first place, which is what determines who the feeding programme targets.
How July Is Actually Observed Now
This is the part most Nutrition Month material has not caught up with. DepEd Order No. 009, s. 2026 changed the form of legislated celebrations. Legislated activities are now conducted strictly within the classroom through integration into regular teaching and learning, with teachers contextualising and embedding the themes, objectives and key messages into relevant subject areas using age-appropriate learning tasks, discussions, performance outputs or formative assessments. Annex D lists the suggested form for Nutrition Month as a culmination activity at school or classroom level.
Central Office-initiated activities and competitions are scheduled during the End-of-Term Block, and national-level activities during the end-of-school-year break. So the elimination round and the big culminating programme have not been abolished; they have been moved off protected instructional time.
For a teacher planning July, the practical consequence is that the strongest observance is a lesson, not an event. Sorting a real canteen menu into green, yellow and red is a lesson. Costing a week of seasonal fruit against a week of packaged snacks is a lesson. Measuring what the school garden actually produced against what the feeding programme actually needed is a lesson, and it is one that survives a poster being taken down.
About Posters, Charts and Slogans
We do not have them and will not pretend to. There is no downloadable poster, no printable fruit-and-vegetable chart and no slogan list on this page, and any site offering an official-looking one should be treated carefully unless it is DepEd or the NNC itself.
Where the genuine material comes from: campaign materials for Nutrition Month originate with the National Nutrition Council, which owns the theme; DepEd distributes campaign guidance through regional and division memoranda, which is where your school gets its instructions; and teaching resources belong on the DepEd Learning Portal. For anyone considering the field seriously, our BS Nutrition and Dietetics guide covers the degree and the licensure route behind it.
Disclaimer: this is an explainer, not a campaign portal. SchoolFinderPH is not affiliated with DepEd or the National Nutrition Council, does not issue themes, does not host posters, charts, templates or slogan lists, and does not distribute campaign materials. Official issuances are linked below.
Sources
- DepEd — DO 13, s. 2017, Policy and Guidelines on Healthy Food and Beverage Choices in Schools and in DepEd Offices (official issuance page, source of the green, yellow and red food lists)
- DepEd — DM 293, s. 2007, Gulayan sa Paaralan (official issuance page)
- DepEd — DO 013, s. 2026, Institutional Guidelines on the Implementation of the School-Based Feeding Program (official issuance page)
- DepEd — DO 009, s. 2026, full PDF including Annex D, which lists Nutrition Month under Presidential Decree No. 491, s. 1974 for 1 to 31 July
- DepEd Region VIII — Regional Memorandum No. 789, s. 2026, 2026 Nutrition Month Celebration, source of the 52nd National Nutrition Month theme and sub-theme
- Presidential Decree No. 491, s. 1974, the Nutrition Act of the Philippines, full text; Section 7 designates July as Nutrition Month
- Republic Act No. 11037, Masustansyang Pagkain para sa Batang Pilipino Act, full text
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