600,000 families now eating healthier – DSWD

The Walang Gutom Program is a flagship anti-hunger and social welfare initiative of the government managed by the DSWD. It provides eligible low-income households experiencing severe food insecurity with monthly food credits to purchase nutritious food.

STAR / File

MANILA, Philippines — Some 600,000 families of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Walang Gutom Program (DSWD-WGP) have reported significant improvements in hunger and food poverty, based on a survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian highlighted this achievement of the Marcos administration during a press briefing by the Presidential Communications Office at Malacañang on Aug. 13.

The SWS survey commissioned by Globe Telecoms had 2,400 respondents and was conducted in two rounds: the first from Feb. 24 to March 8, and the second from June 22 to July 1.

Gatchalian told Palace reporters that they cannot say 600,000 families are eating right.

The DSWD chief emphasized that the survey aimed to determine changes in the condition of WGP household-beneficiaries and non-beneficiary households, particularly their experiences of hunger, food insecurity and their own assessment of their food poverty status.

For this year, Gatchalian said the WGP will continue to strengthen its implementation by adding 150,000 household beneficiaries “to form the entire 750,000 food-poor families.”

He stressed that the program is conditional as beneficiaries need to undergo the Kalusugan, Kakayahan at Kabuhayan (3K) sessions where they are provided with knowledge on nutrition as well as capacity building and upskilling activities.

Based on the SWS survey, hunger among WGP beneficiaries declined by 6.7 percentage points, from 33.6 percent in the first round to 26.9 percent in the second round.

This was a considerably larger improvement compared with the 1.4 percentage point decline recorded among non-WGP beneficiaries, whose reported experience of hunger decreased from 38.3 percent to 36.9 percent.

In terms of the food insecurity indicator, the results recorded improvements in food security among WGP beneficiaries. The proportion declined by 4.7 percentage points, from 94.0 percent to 89.3 percent between the two survey rounds.

This contrasts with non-WGP beneficiaries which experienced a slight increase of 0.6 percentage point, from 95.9 percent to 96.5 percent.

For the last indicator on the respondents’ own perception of their food poverty status, WGP beneficiaries who considered themselves food poor declined by 1.4 percentage points, from 79.0 percent in the first round to 77.6 percent in the second round.

Meanwhile, the proportion among non-WGP beneficiaries increased by 1.3 percentage points, from 84.4 percent to 85.7 percent.

WGP beneficiary Junrey Flores of Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay, winner of the WGP 2026 Cook-off Challenge, was thankful to the DSWD and President Marcos for being considered for the anti-hunger program.

“Thank you po sa tulong sa mga programa na ginawa ninyo… thank you po sa lahat ng mga nagawa niyong kabutihan,” Junrey said.

Launched in 2023 and institutionalized in 2024 through Executive Order 44, the WGP serves as the government’s flagship anti-hunger program based on the directive of the President to combat food insecurity and reduce involuntary hunger among Filipino families.