The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Galing Pook Foundation (GPF) will award on Wednesday (June 26) local government units (LGUs) with the best anti-hunger initiatives and practices on food security through the “Walang Gutom Awards”.
“Through the Walang Gutom Awards, the DSWD and the GPF aim to recognize and showcase the achievements of LGUs and amplify their success stories in ending involuntary hunger and malnutrition among Filipinos, especially children,” DSWD Assistant Secretary for Disaster Response and Management Group (DRMG) Irene Dumlao, who is also the agency spokesperson, said on Tuesday (June 25).
The DSWD and GPF will award 10 LGUs nationwide. Each winning LGU will receive PhP2 million funding allocation from the DSWD’s Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP).
The winning LGU initiatives and programs were chosen based on a comprehensive set of criteria, including their impact on food security and nutrition, engagement of communities, innovation, resilience, sustainability, and efficiency in service delivery.
“These criteria reflect the multifaceted nature of the battle against hunger,“ Asst. Secretary Dumlao said.
The Walang Gutom Awards aim to honor and replicate the best practices of LGUs in addressing food security and nutrition challenges, ultimately contributing to the nation’s goal of eradicating involuntary hunger by 2027.
In September last year, DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian and GPF Chairperson Mel Sarmiento and GPF Executive Director Georgina Ann Hernandez-Yang signed the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA ) for the Walang Gutom Awards.
In the September signing ceremony, Secretary Gatchalian emphasized that the partnership with GPF is an acknowledgment that ending hunger and malnutrition in the country needs collaboration between different organizations.
“Today is a very significant day because it is an acknowledgment that the department cannot do it on its own. We are celebrating that because I always say nobody has a monopoly on the right answers and ending hunger surely cannot be done by one department. We need to create a movement among every single Filipino to once and for all say we are ending hunger right here, right now,” Secretary Gatchalian said during last year’s MOA signing. #
