It was in 2013  that the world first learned about the commitment of Pope Francis to the urgent task of eradicating hunger when he visited the UN World Program.  He gave the full support of the Catholic Church to eliminating hunger, especially among children all over the world.  Not too long after that historic visit, he wrote the Encyclical Laudato Si, addressed to all men and women of good will, where he lamented the prevailing culture of waste or “throw-away culture” through which millions of tons of food are thrown away as surplus (especially in the United States) while tens of millions of people are going to bed hungry everyday.  This message reverberated around the world, including the Philippines, and inspired a group of businesspeople led by industrialist Jose Sandejas to do something concrete to address this problem affecting millions of people in the Philippines.

            Motivated by the Christian imperative of undertaking corporal works of mercy (the first of which is to feed the hungry), this group of business men,  following the usual practice in business to do environmental scanning as a step towards strategic planning of any enterprise, they turned to data of the World Bank (where the Pope first announced his great interest in mobilizing the Catholic Church to fight world hunger).  The key findings of the World Bank can be summarized as follows:  1)  Undernutrition is, and has always been, a serious problem in the Philippines.  For nearly  thirty years, there have been almost no improvements  in the prevalence of undernutrition in the Philippines.   One in three children (29 %) younger than five years old suffered from stunting, being small in size for their age. The Philippines is ranked fifth among countries in East Asia and Pacific region with the highest prevalence of stunting and is among the 10 countries in the world with the highest number of stunted children.  Micronutrient undernutrition is also highly prevalent in the Philippines: 38% among infants six to eleven months old; 26% among children 12 to 23 months old; and 20% of pregnant women are anemic. Nearly 17% of children aged 6 – 59 months suffered from Vitamin A deficiency of which children aged 12 – 24 months had the highest prevalence (22%) followed by children aged six to 12 months (18%).

            (2) Good nutrition is a foundation for economic prosperity, and investments in nutrition are highly cost-effective.  The persistence of very high levels of childhood undernutrition, despite decades of economic growth and poverty reduction, could lead to a staggering loss of the country’s human and economic potential.  A Filipino child with optimal nutrition will have greater cognitive development, stay in school longer, learn more in school, and have a brighter future as an adult, while undernutrition robs other children of their chance to succeed.  The burden on the Philippine economy brought about childhood undernutrition was estimated at US $4.4 billion or 1.5% of the country’s GDP in 2015.  The country’s Human Capital Index (HCI) of 0.52 indicates that the future productivity of a child born today will be half of what could have been achieved with complete education and full health.  In 2013, it was estimated the benefit cost ratio for nutrition investments in the Philippines at 44.  In other words, every dollar invested in nutrition has the potential of yielding $44 return.  A lower estimate projecting benefits accruing from a nutrition intervention scenario (NIS) at the national level through key nutrition-specific interventions rolled out over ten years at full coverage reaches US $12.8 billion over a 10-year period with a corresponding cost of $1,062 million, yielding a benefit cost ratio of 12: 1. 

            Predictably, the World Bank recommended to the Philippine Government certain policy and programmatic actions to address the challenge of reducing childhood undernutrition.  Among these were building a strong and more coordinated partnership for nutrition by strengthening the National Nutrition Council to provide the supervisory and oversight capacities needed for programs to run effectively and efficiently and be enabled to respond to gaps in program implementation.  It was also suggested that high priority and strong support to nutrition should be  the agenda of both the executive and legislative  bodies in the municipalities.  I was personally aware that at least two progressive LGUs—Quezon and Bataan provinces—were implementing the so-called 1,000-day nutrition program for pregnant mothers and children until the age of two (approximately 1,000 days) to address the most crucial period of growth of a human being to avoid damage to the brain due to undernutrition and malnutrition.

            It was obvious to the group of concerned business people that the Government needed help from the private sector (both business and civil society) to implement the recommendations of the World Bank.  It is a well-known practice in the Philippines that business and the NGO sector try as much as possible to fill in the inadequacies and shortcomings of the public sector.  That is why, one of the strengths of Philippine society—despite our many weaknesses—is the very vibrant NGO sector.  Fortunately, in 2016 when Lito Sandejas and his colleagues from the private sector resolved to do something about the serious problem described in the World Bank report—and encouraged by the words of Pope Francis about a throw-away culture—I was still sitting in the board of the leading manufacturers of milk producs in the country—the Alaska Milk Corporation.  It did not take much convincing for the CEO then of Alaska—Freddie Uytengsu, Jr (famous in the local sports circles for promoting basketball and the Ironman events)--to agree that the soon-to-expire (SOTEX) milk products of the firm would be donated to orphanages and other institutions in which children could be better nourished with protein-rich milk products.  This first experience of donating SOTEX food products to alleviate the hunger of children would give rise to the organization of the Philippine Food Bank Foundation. The incorporators of the Foundation were Jose Sandejas, the late Jaime Ladao, Danilo Navarro, Rafael (Itong) Torres and myself.  We were soon joined in the board by Mr. Quintin Pastrana, Mr. Chito Perez and Architect Mike Torres.  Through the generosity of the business enterprises owned by Lito Sandejas, the cash expenses of the Foundation (manpower, warehousing, logistics and transport) were subsidized.

            Since milk products were the most suitable for the children in the orphanages and other feeding clinics such as those in the public schools, we were fortunate that soon, the example of Alaska Milk Corporation was followed by other milk manufacturers such as Anchor Milk, Arla, Century Pacific, Holly’s and Meadow Fresh.  Since hunger cuts across all ages, the Foundation actively sought donations of food products from a variety of food manufacturers and food establishments like All Day Supermarket, Alegro Beverage Corp., Amici Pasta,  Andre Kahn Vegetables, Bizu, Caramia Cakes, Colgate-Palmolive Phils.,  Concept Foods, Delbros, Del Monte Phils., Dole Philippines, Dunkin Donuts, Energen,  Gardenia Bakeries, Green Cross, Jollibee, Krispy Kreme, Makati Sports Club, Mama Sita’s, Mary Grace, Monde Nissin Corp., Nutri-Asia, Pan de Manila, Pick-Up Coffee, Procter & Gamble, RFM Corporation, Shakey’s Plaza, Starbucks, Subway, Toscana Farms, Unilever Philippines, and URC.  Also a very crucial partner is transport delivery company, Grab, that donates its logistics services for the transport of goods either directly to the donee institution from the donor company or from the donor company to the warehouse of the Foundation. As of this writing, the Food Bank is delivering the food donations, not only in the National Capital Region, but in provinces or municipalities such as Cebu, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Pampanga, and Tarlac. To be continued.