As nutritionist-dieticians in public hospitals during this pandemic, Milagros Ancheta and Jenee Virtudazo know how critical their role is in keeping patients and healthcare workers nourished and well-fed.
Their job was made even more challenging as mobility limitations and other quarantine restrictions caused more strain on the availability of raw materials needed in cooking and preparing food for the health workers and the many patients confined in their respective hospitals.
“Several restaurants have closed so we needed to feed all our employees. The same goes for the patients, including their watchers. We also provide meals to those in the ER, which we previously did not need to do,” explained Virtudazo, 51, a nutritionist-dietician at the Philippine General Hospital.
Originally from Imus, Cavite, Virtudazo now resides at a dormitory near PGH in Manila and goes home only when she is done with her 14-day self-quarantine, and during days-off.
She stays at least an hour outside their home to disinfect properly, making sure it is safe to meet her family, especially since there are kids and a senior citizen in their home.
“The biggest challenge for health workers is the threat of being infected with the disease. The fear that your family would be infected because of you is always present. I will never forget the time when several of my colleagues in the hospital already got infected and we needed to undergo several swab tests. We didn’t get to go home while waiting for the results, and my family, especially my mom, got really worried,” she said.
Ancheta, 49, from the Veterans Memorial Medical Center, goes home to her family in Rizal only once a week.
“I don’t come home daily anymore. When I’m home, we still observe social distancing inside the house. It is hard that we have less family time now, I do not get to see them and spend time with them every day, but that’s okay because my family’s safety is what’s most important,” she said.
To help energize the two frontliners and many other healthcare workers in the National Capital Region, Greenwich sent meals to 20 hospitals in Metro Manila as part of the Jollibee Group FoodAID Program.
“Jollibee Group’s products are known as comfort food that is of high quality and safely prepared that’s why we are very happy to receive these meals. Thank you for supporting our work. We do appreciate that people see the hard work that we’re doing,” Virtudazo said.
“The food donation is a great help: Aside from the food itself, just the thought that we are remembered is already a big deal for us. What Greenwich has done for us helped boost the morale of the health workers after a long and tiring day at work,” added Ancheta.
Jollibee Group Foundation Executive Director Gisela Tiongson said frontliners “both inspire and motivate us with their bravery and selflessness.”
“We hope that the food we share with them can fuel both their body and spirit so they will have the strength to continue fighting this battle. We are deeply grateful for their work and sacrifices,” she said.
To give people a convenient way to actively participate in the FoodAID Program and be able to help more frontliners and families in need, the Jollibee Group has complemented the coin banks on the counters of Jollibee Group restaurants with an online version.
Donations through the digital coin bank will be used to bring food packs directly to affected families and frontliners.
Interested donors may donate through online bank transfer to the Foundation’s Metrobank (Account number: 473-7-473-01406-4, SWIFT Code: MBTCPHMM) and RCBC (1253-10519-0) accounts, or via PayMaya (http://pymy.co/jollibee).