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CARITAS
Manila, the prime social-service arm of the Archdiocese
of Manila, began Sunday its food-distribution program
Caritas Manna by pilot-testing the use of parishes to
distribute National Food Authority (NFA) rice to the
poor as part of the joint effort between the government
and the Church to ensure the poor are not left out in
the mad scramble for cheap rice.
Caritas
Manila vowed to make sure the allocated rice from the
NFA will really go to the urban poor. Presently, Caritas
Manila is working to alleviate poverty among some 50,000
urban- poor partner-families in Metro Manila that it has
mapped and identified.
Using
what it calls “The Caritas Family Booklet” as both a
passbook and identification, Caritas Manila is able to
efficiently deliver services and programs to the
targeted urban-poor families. The booklet will be used
to distribute the government’s NFA rice allocation to
the poor through parish selling areas.
From
April 13 to 19, at least 26 parishes in the Archdiocese
of Manila will be the first batch for the pilot area
under the “Tindahan sa Parokya” scheme.
“Under
the direction of our chairman Gaudencio Cardinal
Rosales, and the bishop in charge for social services
and development, Broderick Pabillo, Caritas Manila will
serve as both distribution point and supervision center
because Caritas Manila has the network of urban-poor
families that it has been serving, the church volunteer
leaders in the parishes, and equally important are the
existing structure and facilities that we have, like the
Caritas Family Booklet, the parish centers, the database
to make the program more efficient and effective and
make sure that NFA rice, rice intended for the less
fortunate, should reach the less fortunate, at the
designated price designed to assist the poor,” explained
Rev. Fr. Anton CT Pascual, executive director of Caritas
Manila.
NFA rice
will be sold at the parishes at the NFA recommended
price of P18.25 per kilo. The first batch of parishes
will sell Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the
first week, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon only.
“The
success of the first batch will be assessed and will
determine if this project will continue,” added Father
Pascual.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has assured Caritas
Manila of enough NFA rice. The government and the Church
have agreed that if this would work, it would be
implemented in Metro Manila and expanded nationwide. |
