DAVAO CITY – The city government will conduct regular "community cooking" in far-flung villages to ease the impact of the 2010 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) crisis on poor families, Mayor Sara Duterte said Monday.
She said that Peace 911--the city's peace and development arm--will introduce community cooking to provide hot meals for the residents of the 13 hinterland barangays in Paquibato District.
Mayor Duterte said the community cooking will be done four times a week to ensure that "no one will get hungry" amid the Covid-19 crisis, which prompted the local government units to impose community quarantines that severely restricted people's movement.
In Paquibato district, identified as a flashpoint for communist rebel activity, she said porridge will be served four times a week.
“Peace 911 has identified areas where the barangays can conduct community cooking. Each area will prepare one flagon of ‘lugaw’ per day and will be distributed every other day for four times a week,” Duterte said.
Roger Baay, Peace 911 focal person, told the Philippine News Agency on Monday that the program is an addition to the city government’s regular ration to the barangays.
“We have to understand that Paquibato is a special case since there are Indigenous Peoples (IP) who are in dire need of more help,” he said.
He said that his team has already delivered food supplies to various barangays on Saturday (April 11). Paquibato District is allocated with a total of 52 sacks of rice per week for the community cooking, targeting about 3,120 residents.
Meanwhile, a housing village in Barangay Panacan Relocation here has already introduced its own community cooking, in which viands are distributed to the residents every day.
Grace Mulit, a government employee, initiated the community cooking during the start of the enhanced community quarantine last week.
To adhere to the social distancing guidelines, Mulit said the viands are delivered to each household to avoid unnecessary gathering.
She also encouraged other communities to conduct community cooking to help residents "who don’t have anything to feed for their families". (PNA)
