SUAL, Pangasinan — At least 400 school children from kindergarten to Grade 1 and Special Education classes received nourishment during a free feeding program conducted here Friday by a non-government organization.
“Duterte’s Kitchen”, named after President Rodrigo Duterte, was started by a group of volunteers in Cubao, Quezon City in October 2016. The advocates behind it seek to address hunger among Filipinos, as expressed in their tagline “Wala nang matutulog na gutom (No one will go to sleep hungry)".
Dexter Araquel, national project director of Duterte’s Kitchen, in an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA), said 400 elementary pupils from Sual Central School enjoyed chicken arroz caldo (chicken rice porridge) during the project’s launching in the town.
He said they target to feed additional 1,500 pupils here on Wednesday and Thursday next week.
“We will also continue to feed (children) in the barangays here every Friday until our supplies last,” he said.
Araquel also disclosed that they coordinated with the local government of Sual and a local women’s group, known as Ugnayan ng mga Nagkakaisang Kababaehan (UNA KA), whose members cooked the rice porridge.
“We were inspired by PRRD’s project in Davao when he was still a mayor, wherein there was an eatery at the back of the city hall offering free rice porridge to anyone who is hungry,” Araquel said.
He added that the project awakens the spirit of bayanihan and volunteerism among those who are involved, since all of them are volunteers.
Araquel further said that the funding of the group’s project comes from the "die-hard Duterte supporters", mostly overseas Filipino workers, but he clarified that they do not accept cash donations.
“We hope that there will be more volunteers or more will join in our project, so we could expand more and feed more people,” Araquel said. (PNA)
