“The food stamp program may not be the ultimate solution to hunger in this country, but it will be a big help to families barely able to provide for their food needs because of grinding poverty”
How serious is the prevalence of hunger in the country?
If the results of a survey in the first quarter of this year are any indication, it’s a matter of urgent concern, as 9.8 percent of Filipino families or an estimated 2.7 million people experienced involuntary hunger or being hungry and not having anything to eat at least once in the past three months.
That dire situation has prompted the national government to launch the food stamp program aimed at addressing hunger, especially among poor families.
Under the program, P3,000 food credits will be given to target beneficiaries to purchase food from accredited retailers of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
The target beneficiaries of the food stamp program are not only the 10 percent of the total number of Filipino households, but also single parents, pregnant and lactating women.
The DSWD and the Department of Health will check the nutritional value of the food to be given to program beneficiaries. The DSWD has said it would need P40 billion annually to carry out the program.
We understand that the food stamp program will be funded entirely with grants from the Asian Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency and French Development Agency.
But the government should look for other sources of funds so that the program can be self-sustaining in the long run.
The food stamp program is timely and appropriate as it is part of efforts to cut the incidence of stunting among Filipino children.
Stunting is a condition where children are too short for their age due to malnutrition.
In the Philippines, the prevalence of stunting is 30.3 percent, with the Bangsamoro region having the highest prevalence of stunting at 45.2 percent.
Stunting in the country is largely due to inequality of access to nutritious food, long periods of hunger, and lack of nutrition during the first 1,000 days of life.
For the DOH, stunting and malnutrition can be effectively addressed by a feeding program that will identify, through its partners and local government units, who are the mildly malnourished, moderately malnourished and the severely malnourished.
There are medical parameters to determine who they are, using weight, height, and the circumference of the mid and upper arms.
The DSWD recognizes that addressing the problem of stunting is crucial if the country wants to invest in human capital for the long-term.
The DSWD and the DOH will be working together on the Philippine Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Program funded by the World Bank for many years now.
About 70 percent of the nutrition-specific components of this program are implemented by the DOH.
The other components of the program, such as putting up adequate daycare centers, are implemented by the DSWD.
The food stamp program may not be the ultimate solution to hunger in this country, but it will be a big help to families barely able to provide for their food needs because of grinding poverty.