Beacon of hope amid pandemic
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has indeed turned the world upside down as it almost brought global economies to a paralyzing halt and left scores of people uncertain of their livelihood and their future.
But despite the horrors it brought to the world — with more than nine million people in the planet infected with the deadly respiratory disease and more than 400,000 people dead — there are still some who become tools for resilience amid the pandemic which translate to a word everyone is looking for now: Hope.
In the Philippines, San Miguel Corporation has been in the forefront of extending needed assistance to those who are badly affected by the pandemic — from donating testing kits to binge-buying agricultural products to boost the sectors’ livelihood.
Since the pandemic started in the country, the multinational conglomerate — led by its president and chief operating officer Ramon S. Ang — had found ways to become a beacon of hope to those whose livelihood were adversely affected by COVID-19 and the lockdowns in tow.
For one, SMC has addressed one of the most basic, but terrifying problem the pandemic has caused — hunger — as it revived the humble but nourishing “nutribun” to help address hunger in the poorest communities.
The SMC reported that total production has breached 600,000 pieces — more than double its previous production of 284,171 during the closing weeks of April.
“While our food donations consisting of rice and San Miguel food products continue, there are still many who have limited or no access to sufficient nutrition — the most disadvantaged in our society, especially children. That is why we continue to work to increase production of our ‘nutribun,’ so we can distribute it for free and provide essential nutrition for them,” said Ang.
The SMC’s nutribun donations have already reached some 85 communities, as well as the homeless, through its partnerships with non-profit groups and it includes institutions like Communities Organized for Resource Allocation (CORA), Caritas, Puso ng Ama, Jesuit missions, other NGO, as well as through military and police installations, parishes, convents, barangays and local health offices.
For its COVID-19 response, San Miguel has stepped up to the task, boosting the government’s campaign to fight the deadly respiratory disease as it teamed up with 17 local government units (LGU) in Metro Manila in putting up more testing booths.
The testing booths were placed in areas with high-density of COVID-19 cases and SMC has also donated the much-needed test kits to allow the poorest communities access to free testing.
It also launched its COVID-testing for employees with the safety of all concerned in mind in an effort to continue providing essential services during this pandemic.
San Miguel has also become a pillar of light despite the spread of the pandemic and the enhanced community quarantines that have been placed over Luzon as teams of stay-in workers have been working around the clock at its food facilities to continue essential food production.
As to helping out farmers in the country, SMC has also led the charge in helping out, as it made good on an earlier commitment to protect farmers’ income and ensure the country’s stable food supply in the coming months as it purchased 69 million kilos of corn to date from farmers nationwide in coordination with the Department of Agriculture.
The company’s corn purchase is just one of SMC’s initiatives to extend support to Philippine farmers as it also purchased
While our food donations consisting of rice and San Miguel food products continue, there are still many who have limited or no access to sufficient nutrition — the most disadvantaged in our society, especially children
92,000 kilos of corn from farmer-cooperatives in Central Luzon and Pangasinan as identified by the DA.
Just recently, the SMC turned over 45 Adult Nasal High Flow machines to the government’s National Task Force for COVID 19 to boost the country’s weapons in combatting the deadly respiratory disease.
The SMC previously donated numerous personal protective equipment, food items, provided fuel for government’s shuttle services for frontliners and extended other assistance.
And it also bought excess milk from farmers of the Nueva Ecija Federation of Dairy Carabao Cooperative which San Miguel will distribute some 5,000 liters of excess pasteurized carabao’s milk to six cities and provinces in Luzon as part of its efforts to help struggling dairy farmers mitigate financial losses.