50 Tondo households are first beneficiaries of food stamp program

FILE: FOOD STAMPS. Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian speaks during a news forum in Quezon City on Saturday (July 15, 2023). Gatchalian said the DSWD would pilot the Marcos administration’s food stamp program on July 18, starting with 50 food-poor families in Tondo, Manila. (PNA photo by Robert Oswald Alfiler)

MANILA – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on July 18 will pilot the Marcos administration’s food stamp program (FSP) starting with 50 food-poor families, including pregnant women and lactating moms, in Tondo, Manila.

The kick-off will expand to cover 3,000 families targeted for the six-month pilot nationwide.

The DSWD will then evaluate the results after half a year and move to the scaled-up program, which aims to reach the one million families who belong to the food-poor bracket or those with a monthly income of less than PHP8,000.

“Kung maganda ang resulta, then we move to the scaled-up where it will be initially 300,000 families and then another 300,000 the year after until we reach the one million food-poor families (If the results are good then we move to the scaled-up version of the program where it will be initially 300,000 families and then another 300,000 the year after until we reach the one million),” DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian said at a forum in Quezon City on Saturday.

The pilot is funded with USD3 million (approximately PHP163 million) in grants from the Asian Development Bank and the World Food Program.

Gatchalian pointed out that this is not a dole-out but a development program that aims to invest in human capital.

Aside from digital stamps worth PHP3,000 food credits, the FSP will also provide nutrition development classes and training programs to reskill the beneficiaries.

“Dahil ang rationale ay nakakain na, may enerhiya na, wala nang rason para hindi lumabas at maging bahagi ng produktibong sambayanang Pilipino (Because the rationale is that when hunger has been eased, they can now go out and become productive citizens). We want them to find work out there,” Gatchalian said.

He said the agency is in talks with the country’s economic managers for the program’s funding allocation, which has an initial earmarking of PHP2.1 billion.

“They will look at the measurables, so we have to execute the pilot very well. Whether it’s going to be more grants from abroad whatever funding option there is, ang titignan nila ‘yong resulta ng pilot (what they will look at is the result of the pilot),” he said.

The government’s “Walang Gutom (No Hunger) 2027” program requires an annual budget of PHP40 billion to provide the targeted beneficiaries with PHP3,000 worth of food stamps per month.