Sen. Grace Poe-Llamanzares joins street dwellers during Gawad Kalinga’s Goodbye Gutom Feeding Program in Quezon City last Sunday.

At least for a day, Sen. Grace Poe-Llamanzares helped assuage the hunger of 1,000 street dwellers as part of her continuing crusade against hunger and malnutrition.

The senator attended a Feeding Program organized by Gawad Kalinga last Sunday.

Poe’s visit came after a passionate delivery of a privilege speech urging the government to strengthen its programs against food poverty. In the speech, she clarified that battling hunger is not government’s responsibility alone but should always be a “national civic project, where small deeds taken together, could go a long way.”

Gawad Kalinga invited the senator to the “Goodbye Gutom” Feeding Program held at NPO and NIA Roads in Barangay Piñahan, Quezon City.

Goodbye Gutom served breakfast for street-dwellers living in the area, more than a hundred of whom are severely malnourished children. Beneficiaries were also entertained for free by independent singers, artists and musicians.

The senator told beneficiaries that starting next year, the government will significantly increase the funding allotments of feeding programs for public schools.

“I am fighting for every public school student to receive free lunch. Through the programs that we pushed for in the Senate, next year, there will be budget allotted for the feeding of two million public school students,” she said.

While Poe recognized the anti-poverty efforts of the Aquino administration, she believes the government needs to conceptualize a more effective and comprehensive action plan against hunger and malnutrition.

GK believes it can help the national government reformulate its policy through the multisectoral effort model inherent in Goodbye Gutom.

“We contributed what we could afford to help make this project a reality. We are just paying forward the graces we received from God through GK,” said Caridad Uanang, leader of the GK community which co-sponsored the feeding program.

Faculty and students of De La Salle Zobel were also in attendance as observers. They are hoping to replicate and upscale the Goodbye Gutom program in the numerous La Salle campuses around the country.

Gawad Kalinga believes private schools can serve as catalysts in ending the hunger crisis if each and every school were to hold a regular feeding program for their chosen communities.

For GK and Poe, participating in feeding programs will help develop in Filipinos a firm intolerance to the hunger they witness everyday. For them, the Philippines can never attain a healthy democracy if hunger and malnutrition continue to ail a majority of its population.

“The long-term impact of hunger on our human capital is fatal. We cannot build the foundation of our future on emaciated bodies,” the senator said.