Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian called for food donations from restaurants and fast-food chains, as well as from individuals who are willing to render volunteer service in the newly opened Walang Gutom Kitchen.
“I want to inform you that we are looking for food donations as well as service donations. We encourage organizations and individuals who want to help fight hunger to just go to Walang Gutom Kitchen at the Nasdake Building in Pasay City to be our volunteer server for the day,” Gatchalian said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Launched on December 16, the Walang Gutom Kitchen is the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) latest program that offers holistic solutions to homelessness and hunger, as well as food wastage.
Its primary clientele are children, individuals, and families in street situations and other Filipinos experiencing involuntary hunger.
“First of all, we want to suppress hunger. But where will we get the food? Since this soup kitchen is also a food bank, this is where hotels, restaurants, and fast food stores drop their excess sales and food they did not consume that day,” Gatchalian said.
“Instead of just throwing them away and wasting them, now they have a place to put them and donate them where the DSWD will distribute them and serve them to our compatriots who are experiencing hunger, families who living on the streets, individuals and youth experiencing temporary hunger,” he added.
According to the Social Welfare Secretary, DSWD is set to open more soup kitchens nationwide to realize President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s vision of a hunger-free Philippines.
