The pandemic brought with it a host of social and economic issues, including growing and persistent hunger because of lost jobs and sources of income. In April, realizing that the situation called for coordinated response, JGF worked with a group of non-government and private sector organizations for a major collaborative program called “Project Karinderya.”

Led by KASAGANA-KA Development Center, Inc. and Kabuhayan sa Ganap na Kasarinlan Credit and Savings Cooperative, Project Karinderya aimed to feed urban poor families affected by the lockdown, while spurring economic activity by tapping karinderyas that were forced to close down. Under the program, families were provided with food vouchers that they were able to use to purchase meals from partner karinderyas in their community. JGF contributed its expertise by training karinderya owners on food preparation, food safety and customer service. With support from Temasek Foundation, and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and DEG (German Investment Corporation), over 230 karinderyas got back on their feet and 4,600 families were nourished with nutritious meals.

JGF’s disaster response experience has consistently shown how something simple like a decent meal can help one regain their dignity and confidence to recover. Driven by this motivation, Jollibee Group has consistently come up with food packs that meet the stringent requirements of disaster response: long shelf life, quick and easy to prepare, nutritious, and inexpensive to produce.

In 2020, two new products were added to the FoodAID Program: the Chicken Guisado and Beef Meatballs, both of which were distributed to affected families. In Metro Manila and in COVID-19 hotspots in Laguna and Cavite, 23,000 families received these provisions through the Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor (PCUP) in December alone. For PCUP, it was encouraging to see the many Chicken Guisado recipes that have come out of beneficiaries’ kitchens. From soups to spring rolls, cooking real meals brought back normalcy to these families.

At the start of the pandemic, San Lazaro Hospital (SLH) in Manila was among the few hospitals that admitted COVID-19 cases. As such, the Philippines’ oldest hospital was also among those that bore the brunt of the pandemic early on.

SLH personnel went through a difficult time, recalled SLH spokesperson Dr. Ferdinand de Guzman. With the lockdown in place, personnel who had no means of transportation had to sleep in the hospital so they could be present for work. Because stores were closed, there was also nowhere to buy food.

Chowking was quick to send ready-to-eat meals to SLH when the lockdown started. Aside from the 3,000 meals served to medical frontliners in SLH, Jollibee Group also sent food packs that SLH prepared in its kitchen to feed 6,000 staff, patients, and watchers.
Dr. De Guzman acknowledged all these helped sustain them during the difficult time.

Like clockwork, around 20 volunteers would show up every day at a FoodAID Community Kitchen in Ibaan, Batangas. In the aftermath of the Taal Volcano eruption, these volunteers had an important mission: to serve lunch and dinner to 500 displaced families in the temporary resettlement area.

The Community Kitchen was set up by JGF. It was sustained through the collaboration of the Provincial Local Government Unit of Batangas and its Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO), Anihan Technical School that provided professional training to volunteers, Bangko Kabayan, and volunteer cooks and kitchen helpers from the community.

Sherlyn Villanueva and Edwina Bolo were among the volunteers who lost their livelihood but found purpose in cooking for the evacuees. Both are thankful for the skills that they learned from their kitchen training, and the opportunity to help rebuild the community.