Apart from the family food packs (FFPs) that are distributed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to meet the food needs of families and individuals affected by disasters, the agency will now be able to provide hot and home-cooked meals with its newly-acquired mobile kitchens.

According to DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian, the mobile kitchens, which were acquired through the assistance of Senator Joel Villanueva, will help provide fresh and healthy meals to evacuees, especially in disaster situations that require long-term response.

“Syempre hindi pwedeng laging preserved food at nasa food packs lang yung kinakain ng mga evacuees. So nag-seset up sila ng community kitchen para fresh yung mga niluluto, and now makakatulong itong mga mobile kitchen natin para ma-augment yung mga kinakain ng mga nasa evacuation center na fresh naman yung kinakain nila,” Secretary Gatchalian told reporters during the inauguration of the 15 new mobile kitchens and other disaster response vehicles and equipment on Friday (February 7) at the National Resource Operations Center (NROC) in Pasay City.

Each mobile kitchen, worth over Php5 million, is equipped with sink, oven, kitchen utensils, refrigerator/freezer, stove, cooking wares and other stockpiles of food.

The mobile kitchens have the capacity to serve a number of clients in evacuation centers which may be organized into teams to help in the hot meal preparations depending on the extent of disaster.

On top of the mobile kitchens, the agency also inaugurated two mobile water treatment units capable of treating non-certified drinking/potable water of at least 6,000 liters per hour using Ultrafiltration to make it safe for consumption.

Each mobile water treatment unit costs over Php5.7 million and can also process floodwater and seawater at least 2,500 liters per hour through Desalination or Reverse Osmosis, transforming these unusable water sources into potable and drinkable water during emergency situations.

Functioning hand-in-hand with the mobile water treatment units are two new water tanker trucks which have the capacity of 10,000 liters each.

During disaster response, these water tanker trucks, amounting to more than Php7.9 million per unit, are crucial for collecting water from approved sources and delivering it to evacuation centers or areas affected by water shortages.

To improve its logistical capabilities, the agency also procured two new forklifts, worth Php1.5 million per unit, to lift and move heavy palletized loads, making it indispensable for loading and unloading trucks, stacking goods in warehouses.

A specialized reach truck, amounting to Php1.9 million, was also inaugurated to retrieve and deposit pallets in racking systems, thus maximizing warehouse capacity, especially crucial for large relief supply stockpiles.

“Itong mga ito ay capacitating our service providers para mas mabilis ang pagtugon sa mga nangangailangan,” Secretary Gatchalian pointed out.

The new sets of equipment are part of the third batch of the DSWD’s overall logistics capacity building package, which Senator Joel Villanueva worked for inclusion in the General Appropriations Act (GAA). AKDL