The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has successfully served more than 10,000 Filipinos through its ‘Walang Gutom’ Kitchen initiative, launched on December 16, 2024, at the Nasdake Building in Pasay City. This pioneering project, a collaboration between public and private sectors, transforms surplus food donations from hotels, restaurants, and organizations into hot, nutritious meals for those suffering from involuntary hunger.
DSWD Undersecretary Eduardo Punay announced at the Saturday News Forum that the department plans to scale up the program and extend it to targeted provincial areas within the year. The kitchen, which operates from 6 a.m. until supplies are exhausted, aims to serve at least 600 meals daily for breakfast and lunch. It has attracted around 200 private volunteers to help with daily operations.
Punay emphasized that the kitchen is open to anyone in need, including low-income construction workers, employees, and residents who struggle to afford food. He also highlighted the initiative’s dual purpose of addressing food wastage by allowing partner restaurants to donate their surplus supplies. Punay assured that the meals provided are not ‘pagpag’ or discarded food but are freshly prepared by proactive private sector partners.
In addition to the ‘Walang Gutom’ Kitchen, the Marcos administration is tackling food poverty through the Walang Gutom 2027: Food Stamp Program (FSP). Institutionalized as the government’s flagship anti-hunger program via Executive Order 44, the FSP was pilot-tested in 2023 with 2,000 households and fully rolled out in 2024, benefiting 300,000 individuals. Plans are in place to expand the program to an additional 300,000 beneficiaries this year.
Under the FSP, food-poor Filipinos receive PHP3,000 worth of food credits through Electronic Benefit Transfer cards, which they can use to purchase select food commodities from eligible partner merchant stores. The program also focuses on promoting social and behavioral change by teaching families how to prepare nutritious, delicious, and affordable meals. The DSWD firmly believes that access to food is a basic and fundamental right, and it is their obligation to ensure that hungry families are fed.