The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will expand its Walang Gutom Kitchen program to the Visayas, Mindanao, and parts of northern Manila, a DSWD official announced Monday, April 14.
In a Palace briefing, Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao said the move aims to speed up efforts to combat hunger in more areas of the country.
The Walang Gutom initiative, or the Food Provision through Strategic Transfer and Alternative Measures Program (Food STAMP), is one of the DSWD’s flagship efforts to reduce involuntary hunger among low-income families and help them become more productive.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. previously emphasized that the program’s goal is to end hunger.
“That is the dream of this administration. That is what we are hoping to achieve in this administration by the end of 2028. We say that we have done everything to reduce hunger and poverty in our country and to be able to ensure that we can provide a good and healthy and productive life for our people,” Marcos Jr. said during the Walang Gutom program pilot launch in July 2023 in Tondo, Manila.
Dumlao also said the DSWD plans to expand the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) to support children’s education and improve productivity in poor households.
To provide more opportunities for 4Ps members, the DSWD is working with other agencies like the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) under the Bagong Pilipinas campaign.
So far, nine job fairs have been held, with over 400 applicants hired on the spot and more than 3,000 4Ps beneficiaries receiving job offers from various employers.
“We adapt the whole-of-government approach, the whole-of-society approach, sapagkat hindi lamang po gobyerno ang may responsibilidad sa pagtugon sa problema ng kagutuman at kahirapan. Kasama po natin ang pribadong sektor,” she said.
She also shared that the DSWD is digitalizing the registration, accreditation, and licensing of social welfare agencies to improve services for the poor, vulnerable, and marginalized.IMT
