Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian is confident that the “Walang Gutom 2027: Food Stamp Program” will achieve its target of feeding 1 million food-poor families within three years with the full support of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.

“The fight against hunger is doable and President Marcos is very supportive of this DSWD program which is now scaling up to 21 priority provinces from the original five pilot areas in July 2023,” Gatchalian said on Tuesday, 23 July.

On Monday, President Marcos delivered his third State of the Nation Address (SONA), where he highlighted the need to invest in the inclusive development of the Filipino people, including food and nutrition under the Walang Gutom program.

“The recently launched 'Walang Gutom 2027' will now be fully rolled out from the initial 2,300 households to 300,000 food-poor households across the country by the end of this year. The program will continue until we feed the one million most food-poor families by 2027,” the President said.

Gatchalian explained that the program was designed to address hunger by “food poor” households using data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). PSA reported that around 1.4 million households in the country are considered food poor. This figure was used by the DSWD as the basis for targeting 1 million FSP recipients nationwide in the next three years.

The DSWD’s Food Stamp Program (FSP) aims to reduce voluntary hunger experienced by low-income households by providing monetary-based assistance through Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, which can be used to purchase select nutritious food commodities from eligible partner merchant stores.

“To reach the 1 million FSP target in 2027, 300,000 households will be issued EBT cards before the end of the year, another 300,000 households will be issued EBT cards in 2025, and then 400,000 more in 2026,” Gatchalian noted.

The DSWD began its pilot implementation of the FSP in December 2023 with 2,285 beneficiaries from Tondo, Manila; San Mariano, Isabela; Dapa, Siargao; Garchitorena, Camarines Sur; and Parang, Maguindanao. The FSP is now in 21 priority provinces across 10 regions, including the National Capital Region (NCR).

For the FSP’s full implementation, a funding of P1.89 billion for 2024 has been set aside.

“The FSP is not a dole-out program since its beneficiaries have to meet two conditions to avoid being delisted. First, they must attend nutrition education sessions once a month to foster positive behavioral change while learning to prepare healthy, yet tasty meals,” Gatchalian said.

“Second, they must participate in employment promotion activities at government job fairs or classes conducted by TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority).”