The government’s food stamp program for poor families will be rolled out in July, according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
DSWD Assistant Secretary Baldr Bringas told the House committee on Social Services that the food stamp program will benefit 300,000 families from just 3,000 beneficiaries under the pilot implementation.
But the budget for the program, however, is only sufficient for 100,000 beneficiaries while the DSWD seeks more funding from the Department of Budget and Management.
Bringas also said that beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) will be excluded from the list of food stamp program beneficiaries for the scaled up implementation this year, which begins in July.
The program seeks to reduce the incidence of voluntary hunger in low-income households by providing P3,000 monthly assistance to beneficiaries, which are loaded into an Electronic Benefit Transfer cards, for the purchase of select food commodities from eligible partner merchant stores.