DSWD to launch food stamp program in pilot areas in July

Women sell fruits to have more income in Daet, Camarines Norte. (Picture by JONAS CABILES SOLTES)

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is set to begin implementing the food stamp program in July this year.

DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian said, “Walang Gutom 2027 Food Stamp Program” aims to help one million poor households in the country.

The undertaking is currently being designed. The pilot run will be in July.

DSWD has identified five places that will serve as pilot areas for implementation.

A total of 3,000 families will be initially covered.

One set of beneficiaries will be in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.

The second community to be selected is located in a geologically isolated region or province.

The third group lives in a poor urban area.

The fourth are residents in a calamity-stricken zone.

The fifth set are the poor in a rural area.

Gatchalian said families would be given benefit cards or “tap cards” loaded with food credits amounting to P3,000.

Beneficiaries can use the cards to buy a select list of healthy products from DSWD-accredited local retailers.

“We will supplement the family’s intake para mawala yung feeling of hunger, thereby makahanap siya ng trabaho, thereby they become part of the workforce of the country,” he said in a Palace briefing.

(We will supplement the family’s intake so that the feeling of hunger will be gone, and they can get to work and be part of the country’s workforce.)

The secretary also said the tap cards would not be loaded with money, only “food credits.”

Beneficiaries can choose from a list of different food groups.

Gatchalian said the program would be conditional and have a “work component,” meaning those signing up would need to find work to keep the benefits.

Beneficiaries are families whose income does not go beyond P8,000 a month.

The DSWD chief said funding for the six-month pilot run would come from grants from Asian Development Bank.

Gatchalian hopes the regular implementation of the food stamps will be in place in the first quarter of 2024.

He also wants the number of tap card recipients to increase until the one-million target is reached continually.

The secretary said by next year, the number of beneficiaries would reach 300,000 families, less than a third of the total target.

“Hindi ito cash na ibibigay natin. We use food as currency. Ending hunger is not only the government’s job. It’s everybody’s job,” he said.

(We will not give cash.)

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