Study Room, Malacañan Palace
April 8, 2024

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. met with World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Cindy McCain during the latter’s courtesy call in Malacañan Palace.

The President expressed his appreciation to the WFP for giving impetus to the Philippines’ first digital food stamp program, a new concept that goes beyond providing sufficient food but places more importance on the nutritional value, thereby eliminating hunger and malnutrition, as well as ensuring a healthy and productive life for low-income households.

Since launching the country’s pioneer food stamp program, ‘Walang Gutom 2027’ has made important strides and the feedback has been mainly positive nationwide, according to the President, but much more needs to be done to address child stunting. This is why the Administration is improving its capabilities on educating and training the parents of stunted children for them to know the nutrition impacts of food and be able to properly feed their children.

World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain congratulated President Marcos Jr. for the Philippine Government’s active partnership with the WFP in implementing the digital food stamp program, citing that the Philippines serves as a model for other countries to follow. She assured the Chief Executive that the WFP will continue supporting the Philippines in this undertaking, as well as in other programs in times of calamities and disasters.

WFP has been supporting the Philippine Government in achieving food and nutrition security, reducing malnutrition among children, and improving access to income-generating activities for the rural poor and other vulnerable groups in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2: Zero Hunger.

The WFP first started working in the Philippines in 1968 and re-established its presence in the country in 2006 upon the request of the Philippine Government to support the ongoing peace process in the Mindanao Region. Through the years, it has been supporting the country in its emergency response to natural hazards and armed conflicts while gradually shifting to capacity strengthening through technical support and augmentation of the logistics capacity of government authorities. (wfp.org/countries/philippines)

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