Bayer employees and Gawad Kalinga volunteers
Bayer Fund in partnership with Gawad Kalinga (GK) distributed 500 food packs to elementary school children in four public schools in San Fernando, La Union recently.
Some 30 Bayer employees and Gawad Kalinga volunteers cooked the food themselves and prepared the 500 food packs that were distributed. Thereafter, they visited a GK community in Brgy. Talogtog, San Juan, La Union for a fellowship lunch with the residents and an afternoon of fun and games.
Meantime, Bayer Fund is building feeding kitchens in Norzagaray, Bulacan and Echague, Isabela to help address the problem of hunger and malnutrition amongst public school children in the said areas. The central kitchens are expected to produce up to 3,000 vegetable-based meals daily which can help address the hunger and malnutrition of at least 3,000 students.
The feeding kitchens will be built and operated close to the schools and will provide at least 3,000 meals for 220 days. The kitchen will also use locally produced crops which will help local farmers and other small businesses.
“We are very pleased to do another project with Gawad Kalinga which not only helps local farmers but would also involve school officials and parent volunteers who are encouraged to attend values formation and food education sessions. It is very inspiring that we are able to create shared value among the members of the community which ensures the project’s success and sustainability, Ocampo said.
Meantime, Mark Lawrence Cruz, GK Project Head, noted that GK usually gets support for producing meals but not for expanding or building kitchens to produce these meals. “We are happy that we are able to get support from Bayer Fund to build central kitchen facilities so we can expand and improve our operations and reach out to more school children who will exponentially benefit from this project,” Cruz said.
