The Davao City government has rolled out four food relief programmes for residents affected by the preventive measures to fight the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said food programmes were as follows: food rations conducted by the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO); Agri-Food Programme jointly implemented by the City Agriculturist Office and City Veterinarian’s Office; the Hot Meals on Wheels Programme, which is a soup kitchen; and the village rice distribution programme.
Under the food ration programme, the CSWDO had distributed 292,782 packs to local villages. The remaining 57, 218 food packs will be distributed this week to qualified beneficiaries with an issued ration card.
Duterte-Carpio assured that Davaoenos without the ration card would be given agri-food cards and were entitled to receive agriculture produce as relief. The Barangay and Cultural Communities Affairs Division (BCCAD) is running the soup kitchen or the hot meals programme for 98 villages in Davao City. BCCAD, through the village leaders, serves the hot meals daily at 10am and 5pm.
The mayor also noted that the city government was set to distribute sacks of rice to villages. Under this programme, each village will receive 100 sacks of rice during the entire duration of the enhanced community quarantine. The village leaders will be in-charge of distribution and have initially received 20 sacks of rice.
Duterte-Carpio assured all the 182 barangay (villages) would receive the rice assistance.
She, however, clarified that residents should check the source of rice because some barangay also rolled out their rice assistance to their residents using their respective resources.
Some of the food requirements of low-income families living in Davao City’s urban areas are now being supplied by upland small farmers with fresh produce.
The farm products are bought by the city government and given for free to affected families.
The strategy was devised to help both upland small farmers and families living in urban areas, whose incomes were affected by the impact of Covid-19 on the local economy.
This programme is called Buyback, Repack and Distribute.
“The Buyback Repack and Distribute programme is really for us and the farmers. Our farmers made their harvest available for the city government to be repacked and distributed as part of our rations,” said City Agriculturist Leo Brian Leuterio.
The farm products were repacked and distributed to families affected by the closure of some business establishments following the declaration of the community quarantine because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pilot area of distribution was Barangay Tibungco, which has roughly 12,000 families.
“This really helped them also because the city bought their products at a higher price value than the farm gate price,” said Leuterio. He added that his office is currently repacking at least 10 tonnes of vegetables to be distributed to other barangays in the city.
Fish products were also given to residents from Davao Marina Tuna Corp.

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