The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is pushing for the implementation of its food stamp program or “Walang Gutom 2027”, designed to provide electronic benefit transfers to one million families from Listahanan 3 who belong to the food poor criteria, as defined by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
In order to ensure that the program’s context is appropriate for each area, DSWD has identified five pilot sites from different geopolitical characteristics, including areas in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), geographically isolated regions or provinces, urban poor settings, calamity-stricken areas, and rural poor areas. Each family will be loaded with food credits amounting to P3,000 to purchase a select list of food commodities from DSWD-accredited local retailers.
Food Stamp to be Rolled Out Progressively
DSWD Secretary Rolando Gatchalian added that throughout the program they will continuously monitor and measure the beneficiaries in the regions so that they can progressively roll out the program starting with 3,000 families on a pilot run in July until December of this year 2023.
From there they aim to reach 300,000 families by 2024 and then reach their target of one million households within the succeeding year. He also highlighted that this program seeks to address hunger caused by extreme poverty by meeting their daily food requirements.
What is DSWD Walang Gutom 2027?
The “Walang Gutom 2027” is a food stamp program being implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). It seeks to mitigate hunger caused by extreme poverty through electronic benefit transfers that will be loaded with food credits amounting to P3,000.
The beneficiaries are families who make less than P8,000 monthly based on the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) gauge.
The program has identified five locations from the first stage from different geopolitical characteristics in order to ensure that the context of the program is appropriate for each area.
They aim to reach their target of one million households within the succeeding year starting with 3,000 families on a pilot run in July until December 2023.
The financing for this project comes from the Asian Development Bank which will handle the distribution of close to U$3 million for the six-month pilot run of the food program.
Beneficiaries of DSWD Food Assistance
As mentioned, the beneficiaries identified are those families earning below PHP 8,000 per month.
The DSWD has also included a work component in order to ensure that the beneficiaries are productive members of society. This includes having both parents or guardians go to their nearest Public Employment Service Office (PESO) and get a certification that they are now partaking in being counted as part of the workforce no matter what job it is.
Through this program, DSWD aims not only to alleviate hunger but also to empower communities through access to employment opportunities. They are confident that with this initiative, they will be able to achieve their goal of making sure that no Filipino goes hungry.
Below is a post on Facebook from the Presidential Communications Office. The current government under President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is preparing to enforce the Department of Social Welfare and Development Authority’s (DSWD) suggested “food stamps” system with financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).