DSWD to big businesses: Help eradicate hunger

SOCIAL Welfare and Development Secretary Rex Gatchalian has called on the private sector, especially big businesses, to strengthen its collaboration with the government and engage in more programs that would help eradicate hunger and malnutrition in the country.

Gatchalian made the call during the launch of the Kain Tayo Pilipinas (KTP) Movement in Makati City where he reiterated the need for a whole-of-nation and a whole-of-society approach to eradicate hunger and malnutrition.

“We can improve the nutritional status of our Kababayans by forming and sustaining partnerships at the local, regional, and national levels to ensure a coordinated approach in delivering sustainable food systems that do not compromise our country’s economy, environment, or social systems,” he said.

He also updated the private sector on the different anti-hunger and nutrition programs of the government, particularly under the DSWD such as the Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP); Bangsamoro Umpungan sa Nutrisyon (BangUN) Project; Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Project (PMNP); and the Walang Gutom 2027: Food Stamp Program (FSP).

The KTP movement, chaired by Manuel V. Pangilinan, is a coalition led by the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) and composed of private sector organizations that aims to tackle malnutrition and food insecurity in the Philippines through the implementation of specialized and targeted initiatives tailored to the nutritional needs of specific vulnerable communities.

The KTP Board includes Manolito Tayag; the PBSP Executive Director Elvin Ivan Uy; Zuellig Family Foundation President and Executive Director Austere Panadero; Galing Pook Foundation (GPF) Executive Director Georgina Ann Hernandez-Yang and Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Business Network Secretariat John Echauz.

President Marcos Jr. wants the eradication of hunger to be his lasting legacy and hopes to achieve that through programs such as the Food Stamp Program (FSP) program which aims to end the hunger of some one million families in the country by 2027.

FSP provides a P3,000 monthly subsidy to the one million food poorest families in the country until 2027 which they can use to acquire