(Part 3)
It is the hope of the officers of the Philippine Food Bank Foundation, Inc. that its modest operations would be replicated all over the Philippine archipelago, especially in those regions where the poverty rate is much higher and, therefore hunger is more widespread, especially among children. In this regard, it would be enlightening to be acquainted with the objectives and activities of the Global Foodbanking Network. As its President and CEO, Lisa Moon, remarked, “Increasingly food banks are using innovation and technology to feed more people and in this way, they aren’t just feeding people; they’re transforming food systems.”
As can be read on the website of the Global Foodbanking Network (GFN), data from its 54 members in 45 countries found that global demand for food relief remained high in 2023, with food banks responding by providing food and grocery products to 40 million people, nearly 10 million more people than 2022.
Despite expectations that the demand for food would decrease after the pandemic, food banks in the network reached nearly the same number of people as they did in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The increased expansion of service is largely driven by the high level of demand from conflict and disasters: In all countries where GFN works, there was at least one natural disaster, and 71% of countries experienced civil unrest.
In the Philippines, there should be food banks that address the food security of victims of floods and other natural calamities in the same way that there are plans to build more permanent evacuation centers.
In 2023, food banks increased distribution by an average of 25%, delivering about 654 million kilos of food and grocery products, or the equivalent of 1.7 billion meals. Much of the expansion was from food banks in emerging and developing countries, where hunger rates tend to be higher. These countries represented about 60% of total Network distribution by volume in 2023. Over the last six years, GFN members provided food to five times the number of people, from serving nearly 8 million to 40 million in 2023.
Food banks in the Accelerator Program distributed 27.5 million kilograms of food and grocery products in 2023, 50% growth over the previous year. Fruits and vegetables — crucial for proper nutrition especially for the poor — made up nearly 40% of the food distributed. GFN saw an increase in the use of agricultural recovery to source food for school feeding programs to ensure that schoolchildren receive more nutritious food. In Africa, for example, less than 1% of the food that Food for All Africa recovered came directly from farms. A year later, that number was 28%. Much of that food was used to support Food for Africa’s school feeding program.
In the Philippines, food banking is in its early stages.
Hunger Free Philippines is a faith-based nonprofit organization dedicated to providing food and other resources to those living in poverty. Each year on Mother’s Day, this NGO organizes the “Meals for Moms” program, with priority given to feeding pregnant and nursing mothers, thus addressing the first 1,000 days of the existence of children, starting from the womb.
First, donations are gathered to purchase groceries. Volunteers — sometimes entire families — prepare and pack groceries. This NGO promotes the principle of subsidiarity in addressing the problem of hunger. Individuals, families, and small communities are encouraged to go beyond giving cash donations by actively establishing a food pantry that offers direct meal services and distributes groceries to the economically depressed communities nearest their homes.
Those who are better off in life are helped to create a learning center that combines literacy and education with skills training in planting fruit and vegetable gardens so that some members of the low-income households can grow their own food in designated areas. Here, the assistance of seed companies like East West Seed and Harbest can be very valuable in sharing the most advanced technology and products in the field of vegetable and fruit gardening.
Hunger Free Philippines goes beyond promoting immediate relief from hunger by also developing leadership skills and imparting religious principles, empowering individuals to achieve sustainable personal and economic growth, transforming their lives and livelihoods.
On Aug. 6, the province of Iloilo, in partnership with the Zero Hunger Alliance, organized the Zero Hunger Summit in order to address food security, which was assigned the highest priority by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. in his third State of the Nation Address (SONA), and to promote sustainable agricultural practices. The event gathered local government officials, non-government organizations, community leaders, and representatives from the private sector to forge actionable solutions to achieve zero hunger.
The summit featured keynote addresses and panel discussions focused on local and national initiatives to solve the problem of malnutrition. Since hunger and malnutrition directly impact on the health of the population, especially children, it was incumbent on the Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Maria Socorro Quinon, to give an overview of the fight against hunger in the province of Iloilo.
One of the strategies being implemented by the provincial government is the ART RESPONSE program. ART stands for adequate food production; rehabilitation of malnutrition; and training and capacity building of nutrition workers. RESPONSE stands for reactivated nutrition committee; education to promote good nutrition and behavior change; social marketing for nutrition support; people empowerment; outstanding performance in nutrition program and implementation through awarding; networking and linkages with government agencies and NGOs; scaling up nutrition; and emergency response or nutrition in emergencies.
The agriculturists will contribute through programs of agri-tourism in which Iloilo province has a competitive advantage. Provincial Agriculturist Dr. Ildefonso Toledo described a program that will create agri-tourism destinations by blending ornamental gardening, landscaping, and high-value crop production.
Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor echoed the statement of President Marcos Jr. in the last SONA: “When we talk about our nutrition program, before you ask the question of what kind of food you eat, let us first ask do you have enough food? Nutrition is a food security issue. That is one of the basic premises of our nutrition program.”
The answer is clear: we do not have enough food because we have sorely neglected and mismanaged our agricultural sector for decades. We have a long way to go before we can say that our country is food secure. That is why talk about Zero Hunger will sound like motherhood statements for some time.
We have to look for emergency solutions like food banking. That is why the President of the Philippine Food Bank Foundation, Rafael “Itong” Torres, who attended the summit in Iloilo, felt even more convinced that what this NGO is doing now will be in great demand as an emergency or stop-gap measure to ensure that the present generation of poor Filipinos do not suffer from hunger, especially the children — our most vulnerable citizens.
It may take at least a decade, if not more, before we can attain Zero Hunger. That is why we have to replicate what the Philippine Food Bank Foundation has been doing over the last seven years in as many Philippine regions as possible.
(To be continued.)
Bernardo M. Villegas has a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard, is professor emeritus at the University of Asia and the Pacific, and a visiting professor at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. He was a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission.
