DSWD: 200k meals served to 142k Pinoys at Walang Gutom Kitchen in 2025

The Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Walang Gutom Kitchen (WGK) has served 200,003 meals to 142,246 unique and returning clients – including street dwellers – who experienced involuntary hunger last year.

This is as the DSWD thanked its partners for providing surplus food that was used in sustaining the daily operations of the WGK at the Nasdake Building in Pasay City.

“Ang layunin po ng Walang Gutom Kitchen ay hindi lamang simpleng pagbibigay ng pagkain. Ang lahat po ng putahe na inihahain natin sa ating mga benepisyaryo sa araw-araw ay pinaghahandaang mabuti at sinisiguro natin na masustansya. Ibig sabihin, nakapag-serve na tayo ng mahigit 200,000 na masusustansyang pagkain,” said DSWD spokesperson and Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao in a statement on Wednesday.

(The goal of the Walang Gutom Kitchen is not simply giving food. All of our meals that we serve our beneficiaries every day are carefully prepared so that it is nutritious. This means we served over 200,000 nutritious meals.)

Aside from providing nutritious hot meals, the WGK’s goal is also to reduce food wastage by turning donated surplus food from hotels, restaurants, and organizations into hot meals.

“Sila ang dahilan kung bakit mayroon tayong masasarap at masusustansyang pagkain araw-araw sa kitchen. Gaya kahapon, ang menu sa WGK ay garlic rice, scrambled egg with potato, at fried tuna para sa breakfast. Noong lunch naman, ang kinain ng mga benepisyaryo ay kanin, fried chicken shanghai, at ginisang sayote at carrots,” Dumlao explained.

(They are the reason why we have delicious and nutrition-packed hot meals every day in our kitchen. Like yesterday, the WGK menu for breakfast was garlic rice, scrambled egg with potato, and fried tuna. For lunch, beneficiaries had rice, fried chicken shanghai, and sauteed vegetables.)

In addition, companies, groups, and individuals rendered volunteer services as food and water servers, registration personnel, and crowd control personnel at the WGK in 2025.

“Malaking tulong talaga ang mga donors at volunteers natin. Sabi nga ni Secretary Rex Gatchalian, though the DSWD does provide manpower and we pay for the utilities, everything else is powered by the private sector, from food to serving each plate to beneficiaries,” Dumlao said.

(Our donors and volunteers are a big help. As Secretary Rex Gatchalian said, though the DSWD does provide manpower and we pay for the utilities, everything else is also powered by the private sector, from food to serving each plate to beneficiaries.)

The WGK was launched in December 2024 as a food bank through the collaboration of the government and the private sector.

It is an offshoot of the Walang Gutom Program, the DSWD’s food stamp initiative aimed at reducing hunger among disadvantaged Filipinos.

It serves breakfast and lunch to approximately 250 to 300 walk-in beneficiaries daily.

Last year, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. expressed his desire to see more WGK sites set up across the Philippines to boost the government’s interventions to support street dwellers and address involuntary hunger. — JMA, GMA Integrated News