President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian will lead the pilot implementation of the WALANG GUTOM 2027: Food Stamp Program tomorrow (July 18) in Tondo, Manila.

The Food Stamp Program (FSP) is one of the new priority programs of the DSWD that will reduce the incidence of involuntary hunger experienced by low-income households by providing them access to monetary-based assistance in the form of an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card, which will be loaded with food credits.

“The FSP aims to provide food augmentation to the bottom 1 million households from Listahanan 3, who belong to the food poor criteria as defined by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA),” Secretary Gatchalian said.

About 3,000 low-income families identified through the Listahanan 3 will be the pilot beneficiaries of the program.

“The priority beneficiaries for the pilot implementation are poorest households prone to food insecurity, as well as pregnant and lactating women, and households with children 2 years of age and below,” the DSWD chief said.

The Food Stamp Program will be piloted in identified areas in the National Capital Region (NCR), Cagayan Valley Region, Bicol Region, Caraga Region, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

For the duration of the pilot implementation, the beneficiaries of the program will receive food credits amounting to P3,000 per month for six months (July to December).

These food credits can be used to purchase a combination of various nutrition-rich food items from DSWD-accredited partner retailers.

To ensure that the family beneficiaries will be able to consume different kinds of healthy foods, based on the list recommended by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), the EBT card will limit how much families can purchase.

From the total amount of food credits, Php1500 (50 percent) will be allocated to purchase carbohydrate-rich foods such as rice and bread; Php900 (30 percent) are for proteins such as chicken or pork; and Php600 (20 percent) are for vegetables, fruits, oil, salt, or other condiments.

Aside from addressing hunger, the Food Stamp Program will also enable beneficiaries to become productive citizen since they will be required to participate in capacity building and training to improve their employable skills.

The Food Stamp Program will be implemented with the help of the World Food Program (WFP) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). #