A total of 15 mobile kitchens are now ready for delivery to the different Field Offices of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to be used during disaster operations.
Special Assistant to the Secretary (SAS) for Disaster Response Management Group (DRMG) and concurrent officer-in-charge (OIC) of the National Resource and Logistics Management Bureau (NRLMB) Leo Quintilla made the announcement, noting the “new normal” brought forth challenges, especially in terms of facing various kinds of calamities.
Responding to this, the DSWD-NRLMB official said the mobile kitchen is another innovation of the DSWD to increase the capacity to respond to any disaster situation.
Quintilla said the mobile kitchens procured by the Department had already been delivered and are currently being inspected according to specifications before these are officially transferred to the DSWD Field Offices.
The Field Office-National Capital Region (NCR) is not included in the recipients as the region already has a mobile kitchen previously donated by the World Food Programme (WFP). The provision of hot meals in evacuation centers through the mobile kitchen is especially significant in prolonged disaster response, according to the DSWD-NRLMB official. Quintilla added the mobile kitchen will also serve those in geographically isolated and disadvantaged (GIDA) areas, especially 4th and 5th-class municipalities during disasters.