
About 650 Murciahanon families each received P3,000 worth of food items under the “Walang Gutom 2027: Food Stamp Program” of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) at the Murcia Gymnasium last week.
The program started in Murcia in November 2024.
“The DSWD National Office has identified 1,100 beneficiary families, but so far only 728 families were validated and issued with the Electronic Benefit Transfer Card, which entitles the beneficiary to redeem P3,000 worth of food items every month for three years,” Murcia Mayor Gerry Rojas said in a press release Wednesday, Jan. 15
“We are fully supporting this initiative by helping expedite the validation and distribution to improve the nutrition of our most needy and neglected families,” he said.
The program also supports local farmers, producers and suppliers by sourcing the food items from them, ensuring that it not only benefits the direct beneficiaries but also the local economy, Rojas said.
Charisma Olimpo, Murcia Municipal Social Welfare and Development head, said that it is the DSWD national office, through the Listahanan Survey conducted in 2019, which identifies the beneficiaries of the program.
“Our role in the local MSWD simply to help facilitate the verification of beneficiaries and procurement of food items, and ensure the smooth distribution when the beneficiaries redeem each month their P3,000 worth of food items,” she said.
“The food items consist of rice, fish, pork, chicken, eggs, vegetables and spices, cooking oil and other food commodities. The beneficiaries themselves choose which food items to redeem,” Olimpo explained.

The program aims to serve as a safety net for families who were unable to avail of other DSWD and government interventions, such as the 4Ps and DOLE-TUPAD.
Beneficiaries are entitled to P3,000 worth of redeemable food items every month for three years. However, they need to attend the monthly Nutrition Education Sessions conducted by the Barangay Nutrition Scholars to redeem their benefits in the following month, the press release said.
“During the first distribution in November, 394 families redeemed their food items, with 100 percent of them availing of the second distribution in December. Last week, 629 families redeemed their food items, and we are looking forward for more families to avail of this program next month,” Olimpo said.*