Ex-Dubai OFW launches Noche Buena food drive for Laguna homeless by selling homemade peanut butter

Santa Claus came to town in San Pedro, Laguna for Christmas. But not on his reindeers, rather on a mountain bike with friends, handing out food packs of lechon manok, pancit canton and lumpiang shanghai to the homeless for Noche Buena.

Fifty-one-year-old Mike Zuniga, an accountant-turned-fulltime-professional-photographer in Dubai, who launched the initiative dubbed, “Padyak Noche Buena,” said he came up with the fundraiser because less fortunate people also deserve to feel the Yuletide spirit.

“We are not rich and we have to scrape every bit of food we put on our table,” said Zuniga, who arrived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2006 and has gone back to the Philippines for their kids’ college.

“But seeing these people with less than what we have, we started to give anyway. Gusto ko talaga tumulong. Pero dahil sapat lang ang pera namin, akala ko hindi ko kayang tumulong. Pero sa maliit na halaga, nasimulan ko at ngayon, sa halagang biente pesos puwede pala. Maliit na halaga para sa atin, pero malaki na siya sa mga walang wala,” he added.

Zuniga, his wife Aileen and kids prepared homemade peanut butter that came in a variety of flavors and sold them online, of which P20 pesos from each jar purchased was set aside for the Noche Buena food-for-the-homeless project. Donations also poured in.

Zuniga, a blogger, said they initially targeted 100 beneficiaries. “We went way beyond the 100-people mark. But we are still encouraging people to donate kasi we still have other projects lined up,” Zuniga said. Sales and deliveries were made from Dec. 1 to 23.

Deliveries

From their place in San Pedro, Laguna, Zuniga at times went as far as Lagro in Fairview; Caloocan; Pasig; Imus, Cavite; Meycauayan, Bulacan; even Antipolo, for the peanut butter deliveries made cycling on his mountain bike.

“Ang deliveries namin started within San Pedro, Laguna muna then being a blogger here, I started selling sa blogger friends ko, who are in Makati and Manila. Magulo sa simula basta may bumili, nagde-deliver ako by bicycle.

“Once a week, we do Cavite; twice a week for the Metro Manila deliveries; and from time to time, Calamba. Kapag may total 8 minimum jars ordered na, nagde-deliver na ako,” Zuniga said.

To boost sales, he said, he put some add-ons like bagnet and longganisa from Vigan, danggit and dried squid from Cebu and homemade longganisa and tocino, “para lang sila bumili ng isang peanut butter, matikman lang.

“Once matikman nila ang peanut butter, I was confident then that mag-order sila ulit,” said Zuniga.

Do-it-yourself peanut butter

Making the peanut butter is not easy, recalls Zuniga.

“Wala po akong alam kung paano gumawa ng peanut butter,” he said. “Nagsimula lang siya sa pandemic at nag-lockdown dito. Need ko lang ng palaman sa tinapay kasi ito ang murang paraan para maitawid ang gutom sa gabi kasi nga bawal lumabas.

“We love peanut butter and we realized mahal ang peanut butter sa grocery. So nag-search ako sa YouTube kung pano gumawa at nakita ko naman madali siyang gawin. pero un ang akala ko. hindi pala,” Zuniga added.

With help from friends, and following at least two months of trials and errors, they finally hit the spot – after which they decided to sell from a P500 start-up, then went the extra mile and launch the Noche Buena food drive.

The peanut butter comes in four varieties – “Smooth,” which is their bestseller; “Choco,” “Chunky,” and “Sugar-free,” which is best for kare-kare, Zuniga said.

By December 20, the food drive had P8,660 in donations and P620 in sales. Price of the peanut butter starts at P140. Beneficiaries were the homeless in San Pedro, Laguna.

Zuniga said peanut butter production stopped on Dec. 23 and will resume on January 4. — RSJ, GMA News