With the challenge that COVID-19 brought in a global level, the poor are among the most vulnerable. Food insecurity, limited access to markets, and the lack of a steady source of income are existing socio-economic problems that aggravate the threat to their well-being. Despite the Extended Community Quarantine (ECQ), people scurry in the streets to ask for food and relief assistance.
A-People, having the propensity to help in their own way, moved to action. In early April, Pilmico partners launched a donation drive to support Bread of Salt, an initiative focused on feeding Metro Manila families who are in need amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In Iligan, the Food Group Philippines partners initiated a fundraising activity Labor of Love that allocated a portion of their bonuses for the benefit of medical frontliners, street sweepers, and garbage collectors.
“As we collectively experience the difficulty and stress brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, Pilmico aims to assist its various stakeholders by bringing comfort through food. Families today have many challenges to deal with brought about by our need to stay at home, and we thought we would try to ease that as best as we could. Through the food distribution coming from the local bakeshops, we are able to bring food production and supply as close as possible to consumers, meaning they don’t have to venture too far to get access to it. Meanwhile, this also allows for the creation of additional revenue streams for the small businesses in those communities,” said Tristan Aboitiz, Food Group Philippines President & CEO.
Through the KINDer by Aboitiz online crowdfunding platform, Food Group Philippines partners launched a donation drive to support and provide additional resources to the Bread of Salt initiative, a tripartite partnership between donors, community organizations, and local bakeries and targets urban poor families in Metro Manila and Bulacan.
With the team member-led initiative raising almost PHP150,000 in cash donations from both internal and external partners, almost 180 bags of flour were purchased and donated to local bakeries for the production of free pandesal. It also increased the number of partner bakeries from 9 to 30 bakeries. In total, free bread was served to around 2,500 families.
“Everyone in the Bread of Salt team is more than grateful for this assistance. When we started this initiative, admittedly, it was hard because of the logistic and funding challenges. But thanks to generous assistance from organizations like Pilmico, we were able to serve more than 3,000 families and counting,” said Rachel Morala, a representative from Bread of Salt.
By tapping local bakeries to produce pandesal, Bread of Salt secures both continuous income for local bakeries by allowing them to stay afloat while efficiently providing food assistance to those in need during the ECQ.
Meanwhile, Labor of Love raised more than PHP76,000 from donations made by Pilmico’s team members in Iligan. The project provided rice assistance to the frontliners of Gregorio Lluch Memorial hospital in Iligan, and reusable face masks for Iligan City’s street sweepers and garbage collectors. The donations provisioned for more than 80 15-kilogram sacks of rice and PHP14,000 worth of reusable face masks ordered from Pilmico’s cooperative partner sewers in Cebu.
Aside from assisting Bread of Salt and the Labor of Love initiative led by its team members, Food Group Philippines conducts bread and medical supplies distribution in key areas all over the country. The food donation aims to bring comfort through food, especially to the country’s critical sectors such as hospitals, military checkpoints, and families in need. Because Pilmico acquires its bread donations from partner bakeries, local bakers are also empowered with a continued source of income during the COVID-19 crisis. To date, Pilmico has distributed close to 570,000 bread, PHP4.1 million worth of food, and close to PhP1.5 million worth of PPEs, medical supplies, and sanitation kits. These were made possible by the consolidated efforts of Pilmico, Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. and the partnership with the Philippine Association of Flour Millers, Inc. (PAFMIL).
Interested to help the Bread of Salt initiative? You may contact Ms. Rachel Morala at rach.morala@gmail.com.
