To ensure regular provision of food to more or less 50,000 evacuees inside the Joaquin F. Enriquez Sports Complex or Grandstand in Zamboanga City, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) tapped local catering groups and food service providers to augment and ensure continuous provision for the daily meal requirements of the evacuees.  This is in addition to the food provided by the community kitchens established by the City Government.

 

On Sunday, DSWD, through Chinitos, Whoopee Burger House, Sunflower Food Center, and small canteens, has provided 16,500 packed meals for lunch and dinner with a total cost of P825,000.

 

Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman, who is still in Zamboanga City to oversee the relief operations to victims of the more than one-week armed conflict between the government forces and MNLF-Misuari group, instructed the DSWD Field Office IX for the continuous procurement of these ready-to-eat foods to ensure the timely and orderly provision of meals to the evacuees with the elderly, children, and pregnant women as priorities.

 

Starting today, DSWD will provide 80,000 packed foods to the evacuees in the Grandstand to be delivered by the mentioned food providers (40,000 for lunch and another 40,000 for dinner). The City government is also providing 12,000 packed foods per mealtime while the International Committee of the Red Cross committed to shoulder another 10,000 for dinner.

 

Breakfast today was prepared by the established community kitchens where 24 sacks of rice and 20 cases of corned beef were consumed