President Rodrigo Duterte has approved an enhanced anti-hunger program that aims to achieve zero hunger in the country by 2030.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles requested for the approval of the memorandum of understanding for the government agencies that will serve as members of the Enhanced Partnership against Hunger and Poverty during Friday night’s Cabinet meeting.
“Our aim is to eradicate hunger by 2030. But EPAHP is more than just hunger mitigation. It is also about food security and poverty reduction,” Nograles told Manila Standard in a phone interview.
“We will be sourcing products directly from farmer organizations for our government feeding programs, including those in child development centers under the Department of Social Welfare and Development, in schools under the Department of Health, and in our jails under the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology. By going straight to our farmers and bypassing the middlemen, our farmers will earn more while we ensure a sustainable supply of produce for our hunger-alleviation programs,” he added.
EPAHP will have for its members the Department of Agriculture, Department of Agrarian Reform, DSWD, DepEd, Department of Health, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Science and Technology, National Nutrition Council, National Youth Commission, and Land Bank of the Philippines.
“Millions of kids benefit from government feeding programs, but there are many more we still have to reach. We still have a lot of work to do to make sure every Filipino child is properly fed until we can finally say #GoodbyeGutom,” Nograles said in an earlier interview.
In the second quarter survey of pollster Social Weather Stations, the number of Filipino families experiencing “involuntary” hunger slightly increased by half a percentage point, from 9.5 percent in March (equivalent to 2.3 million families) to 10 percent in June (equivalent to 2.5 million).
Of the total number of families which said they experienced involuntary hunger, 8.7 percent or 2.1 million experienced “moderate” hunger, while the remaining 1.3 percent or at least 320,000 families endured “severe” hunger.