By Alec Go
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) launched Tuesday, July 18, the pilot implementation of the “Walang Gutom 2027: Food Stamp Program” that provides food assistance to low income households.
Through the program, a P3,000 monthly meal augmentation for around one million food-poor families, pregnant women, and lactating women will be given through electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards that can be used to purchase healthy food items.
Of the total food credits loaded on the EBT, P1,500 will be for carbohydrate-rich foods such as rice and bread, P900 will be for proteins such as meat, and P600 is allocated for vegetables, fruits, oil, salt, or other condiments.
The DSWD said the pilot run covers 3,000 low-income families in Metro Manila, Cagayan Valley, Bicol Region, Caraga Region, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao until December.
“Makakaasa kayo na ating tututukan ang ating bagong programa at siguraduhin ang tagumpay nito para sa ikauunlad ng ating mahihirap na kababayan at sa pag-abot ng bagong Pilipinas na walang gutom,” DSWD Sec. Rex Gatchalian said.
The pilot run launch in Tondo was attended by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., Vice President Sara Duterte, representatives of the World Food Program and the Asian Development Bank, local officials, and beneficiaries.
In his speech, Marcos reiterated his administration’s goal to reduce hunger and poverty by 2028, noting that “the problem of hunger and malnutrition still remains” despite actions to address poverty.
“And that is why, it has become a priority of this government that we will fight poverty. We will put in all of our programs, so that one day we can say that we are able to give our people, the very least, the food that they need to survive, the nutrition that they need to survive,” he said.
“This is a continuing part of all that we have tried to do so as to be able to achieve ang tinatawag na ‘walang gutom’,” he added.
