Street children thank the volunteers for the food. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/Chimene Belen)
If there’s one person who’s not going to sleep hungry tonight, doesn’t that make a difference?” Jill Enriquez, one of the founders of a Cebu-based nonprofit organization quipped as her group filled cups with arroz caldo (porridge).
Ten groups of Cebuano volunteers fed indigent Cebuanos last October 16-18 in observance of World Food Day.
This year’s celebration had the theme, “Social Protection and Agriculture.”
But as new volunteers, they are still meeting their second goal, which is to encourage other well-to-do Cebuanos to go out and feed the less fortunate.
The volunteers prepared spaghetti, arroz caldo, fried chicken, rice, porridge, cookies, drinks and other food for the street dwellers.
Some drove around the city to distribute food, while others chose to set up their feeding stations in the vicinity of the Redemptorist church and in barangay Tejero.
Each group took photos of the food recipients and shared it on Facebook with the hashtags #IcareAboutMyCommunity, #IcareAboutHunger, #FeedTheHungry and #VolunteerinCebu.
Enriquez said that “in Barrio Luz itself, there are more than 80 malnourished children, but many people are overfed.”
In their previous feeding activities, Volunteer in Cebu limited their beneficiaries to children below 12 years old. But after seeing mothers lining up to get food, they fed whoever was hungry.
Having given aid to a number of victims of Yolanda and the 2013 earthquake in Bohol, the Cebuano volunteers were advised to teach the people how to fish so they would not rely on others’ help.
John Monteith, a volunteer, admitted that their Feed the Hungry campaign “cannot really address food poverty, but it still makes a difference.”
“At least if you can feed them, their way of thinking will change. If you eat, you’ll gain energy and you’ll be more productive,” Monteith said.
Not only do they serve food to the hungry Cebuanos every October, volunteers become sources of information when share about the food poverty they observed in an area they passed by with Enriquez or a veteran volunteer, and arrange a feeding activity.
To continue their campaign, the Volunteer in Cebu plans to provide lunch to 58 undernourished pupils of Dapdap Elementary School in San Remigio town, northern Cebu.
Enriquez said they are going to feed these students for 120 days, as advised by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
By doing this, their food intake will improve their Body Mass Index, and thereby boost their nutritional status to normal or acceptable standards.