The Negrense Volunteers for Change (NVC) Foundation shipped 10,000 servings of Mingo Meals Monday, September 26, to Polillo Island in Quezon Province where Typhoon “Karding” made its first landfall Sunday.
Mingo is an instant complementary food for infants and toddlers manufactured in NVC’s Bacolod-based processing plant for its six-month long nutrition program for malnourished children. It has also been used in emergency relief operations in the aftermath of natural disasters like Typhoon Yolanda, Taal’s eruption and the Cotabato earthquake, or conflict situations such as the Marawi war and the Zamboanga siege.
“Even as we began to receive donation offers early in the morning, we refused to accept them until we made contact with someone directly in charge of Bangon Polillo or any similar credible group,” NVC President Millie Kilayko said.
“We prayed fervently to find one before the end of the day because we had always made it an NVC target to get Mingo on its way within 24 hours of a disaster”, she said.
“I was instructed to drop everything until I made contact with the target Polillo Island,” said Suzy Peñalosa, NVC’s Development Manager, who was able to talk to Fr.Bong Sarabia who is involved in the Bangong Polillo assistance and recovery efforts.
“The power of prayer connected us record time”, she said.
Kilayko said they will continue to provide for the nutritional requirements of Polillo children because “children who have been in a stressful situation need proper nutrition even more.”
“NVC also intends to call for donations to its Peter Project, which provides motorized fishing boats to fishermen who have lost theirs to disasters”, she added.
After Typhoon Yolanda, NVC provided more than 4,000 motorized bancas to distressed fishermen from Leyte, Samar, Biliran Islands, Iloilo, Negros Occidental and Cebu.*