DSWD's Walang Gutom Program beneficiaries soar to 259K

More than 259,000 households are now registered as beneficiaries of the Department of Social Welfare and Development's (DSWD) Walang Gutom Program (WGP).

Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao, who is also the DSWD spokesperson, said this is fast-approaching the 300,000 mark which is the number of beneficiaries the agency aims to register into the flagship anti-hunger program by the end of 2024.

"As of our December 4 tally, we now have 259,412 Walang Gutom Program household-beneficiaries, which is equivalent to 86.47% of our target for this year," Asst. Secretary Dumlao said on Wednesday (December 4).

In 2023, the WGP enlisted more than 2,000 household-beneficiaries across its pilot areas across the country.

The scaled-up implementation of the program from July 2024 until the end of the year intends to bring in 300,000 families across 22 provinces in 10 regions.

In Region 2 (Cagayan Valley), National Capital Region (NCR), and CARAGA region, the agency has officially concluded the registration of all targeted families, according to the DSWD spokesperson.

"Most of our field offices have reported over 80 percent or 90 percent of their targets, while we have successfully completed the onboarding of our targeted households across NCR, Cagayan Valley and CARAGA region," the DSWD official emphasized.

For its part, the DSWD Field Office (FO) 8 – Eastern Visayas is expediting registration efforts across validation sites in the provinces of Leyte, Samar, Eastern Samar, and Northern Samar.

The latest tally also showed that the FO has successfully carried out the registration of over 30,000 families, which is now equivalent to 63.68 percent of its targeted households.

"There might have been delays in verification and validation schedules due to the recent disasters that hit our country. However, as observed from the latest figures of verified beneficiaries, we are catching up with our target numbers," Asst. Secretary Dumlao pointed out.

The DSWD spokesperson assured the public that under the directives of Secretary Rex Gatchalian, the agency is expediting the validation and verification efforts to be able to complete the onboarding of 300,000 beneficiaries for the year 2024.

The DSWD's WGP, created through Executive Order No. 44, aims to decrease the incidence of involuntary hunger experienced by Filipinos from low-income households.

The program beneficiaries are provided with electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards loaded with food credits amounting to P3,000 to purchase a select list of food commodities.

The WGP also promotes social and behavioral change among food-poor families by teaching them how to prepare nutritious, delicious, and affordable meals.

The WGP aims to feed 1 million food-poor families by 2027. (DSWD)