The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has confirmed that the "Food Stamp Program" (FSP) will be implemented nationwide this coming July.
DSWD Undersecretary Edu Punay stated that after a six-month pilot implementation in some parts of the country, the program will now be rolled out throughout the nation.
The FSP will be deployed in ten regions and 21 provinces, initially targeting 300,000 families. The eventual goal is to reach one million households. The DSWD is also currently hiring new staff in the areas covered by the food stamp program.
Those included in the program are those on the Listahanan 3 or those who meet the food-poor criteria as defined by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). The aim of the program is to combat hunger by providing food stamps, which can be used for payment at grocery stores participating in the FSP.
"This month, the validation and registration of 300,000 beneficiaries for July will begin. We have already hired 1,000 validators this month for the implementation sites. These comprise 21 provinces in 10 regions identified by our department as priority areas," according to Punay.
In the first six months of the pilot implementation, 3,000 families benefited from the program from February to March, and it has helped alleviate hunger, according to the DSWD.
The FSP is included in Executive Order 44 of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., establishing "No Hunger 2027: Food Stamp Program" as the flagship program of the national government.
The program aims to alleviate hunger among households with extremely low incomes by providing monetary-based assistance contained in Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, which they can use to buy selected food items at partner merchant stores of the program.
