The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) recognizes that addressing hunger is a continuing effort that is why there is a need to implement innovative strategies to combat involuntary hunger, Asst. Secretary for Strategic Communications Romel Lopez said on Tuesday (January 23).

“This is why we continue to implement innovative programs to address hunger among our citizens. The survey result does not stop us from our work, albeit, we are more determined to seek solutions and strengthen our collaboration through the whole of government approach. Addressing hunger is a multi-agency task,” Asst. Sec. Lopez, who is also DSWD  spokesperson said.

The DSWD official issued the statement following the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showing that the country’s involuntary hunger incidence increased in the last quarter of 2023 from 9.8% in September 2023 to 12.6% in December 2023.

Asst. Secretary Lopez noted that the SWS survey attributed the spike to the increased hunger incidence in all parts of the country except in Metro Manila.

“This is somehow a favorable result validating once more the importance of the national government’s Food Stamp Program (FSP). FSP is currently being pilot tested in Tondo, Manila with 1,216 beneficiaries,” Asst. Secretary Lopez pointed out.

The FSP aims to provide food augmentation to the bottom 1 million households from Listahanan 3, who belong to the food poor criteria as defined by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

“The FSP involves providing cash-based assistance in the form of an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card that will be loaded monthly with Php3,000 that can be used to purchase a select list of commodities from registered local retailers. This aims to empower the poor to let them choose what food they want to eat based on the list provided by the DSWD,” the DSWD spokesperson explained.

Ultimately, the FSP aims to properly address the gaps and assist households in attaining the recommended energy needs to perform their daily tasks and routines that directly and indirectly contribute to human capitalization and nation building.

On October 12, 2023, Malacanang issued Executive Order (EO) No. 44, which establishes the WALANG GUTOM 2027: Food Stamp Program as a flagship program of the Marcos administration.

The EO also ensures that the program has enough funding to help more food poor families this 2024, Asst. Sec. Lopez said.

The FSP is set to conduct its full pilot implementation this 2024 and scale up its operations to fight involuntary hunger in the country.

“DSWD hopes that through the Food Stamp Program, the country will be able to combat hunger and achieve food security towards the realization of a zero hunger Philippines,” the DSWD official said.#