Efforts to fight hunger in the Philippines have received good news coverage recently.
On May 25, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported on a Stop Hunger Now Philippines meal-packaging event that packaged 36,000 meals. Sponsored by The Hershey Co., which has donated $11,600 to Stop Hunger Now, the event mobilized about 50 volunteers, including students from Far Eastern University and young professionals.
Stop Hunger Now Philippines is partnering with Gota de Leche, a charity founded in 1906, and aims to serve roughly 700 children in slums in a handful of cities and poor provincial communities. Gota de Leche — Spanish for “drop of milk” — and its partner nonprofits will be distributing meal packs to daycare centers in the target communities.
On June 4, Panay News reported that a Senate bill calls for government agencies to provide one free meal to students within the first two hours of their school day. The effort would be piloted for three years in the five poorest counties in the country.
According to a national survey, 8.6 percent of children ages five to 19 are malnourished, the newspaper said. And it said Stop Hunger Now estimates 600 million primary-age children go to school hungry.
Stop Hunger Now, which has been working in the Philippines since 2008, opened its meal-packaging program in Manila in 2014 to to benefit local schools, orphanages, medical clinics, and vocational training programs, and to make meals readily available for natural disasters such as super Typhoon Haiyan and Typhoon Ruby.