KuBO Community Kitchens for Manila Hunger Hotspots

It's been a tough year since we initially launched our fundraising campaign for KuBO (Kusina ng Bayan sa Oras ng Pangangailangan or Community Kitchen in Times of Need). Through your support we've been able to raise $6,602 as of the time of writing this report, exceeding our original goal of $5,000.

But, while we had large aspirations towards making KuBO a nationwide campaign in battling hunger for millions of Filipinos, we've also faced numerous roadblocks as our communities and the world deals with the consequences of COVID-19. The second wave of lockdowns in the Philippines had particularly restricted our activities and limited our progress.

We've managed over the past few months to maintain constant communication with our stakeholders and keep each other updated on the how the situation is developing in our respective organizations and communities. Fortunately, with the recent announcements of more relaxed COVID-19 response measures, we plan to proceed with our action plans incorporating adequate safety protocols. 

Links:

• Visit our website to learn more about us!

We're one step closer to KuBO (Kusina ng Bayan sa Oras ng Pangangailangan or Community Kitchen in Times of Need)! 

While we've faced many challenges over the past few months, the ASSIST team has been working hard to build solid foundations for the establishment of these community kitchens. The main focus of the past few months has been on identifying the areas in which we can create the most good and meet the commitment we made to our generous supporters:

Through KuBO, we aim to...

• Respond to the Philippines' ongoing issue of hunger and malnutrition
• Provide an additional lifeline during natural disasters. 

Thanks to our community partner organizations, who we've been in constant communication with, we've been able to accomplish the initial site assessment and are in the midst of cost assessments and plans to enhance the site where our pilot community kitchen will be set up. 

Over the next few months, we are looking forwad to sharing more updates on our journey to successfully sustain and grow KuBO as a campaign in battling hunger and providing food and nutrition to millions of Filipinos residing in vulnerable communities. In the long-run, this will be a multi-stakeholder partnership drive to transform the community kitchen into a hub that can deliver key programs, including government initiatives, focused on health, hygiene, and livelihood.

Links:

• Visit our website to learn more about us!

Since August, we have established partnerships two community organizations in Quezon City and Manila. These organizations help us identify our target beneficiaries and implement our core and support programs.

Our core programs includes the feeding of select malnourished children (ages 7-12) in the community. This is tied up with community and home gardening where the produce is used for the feeding program. The harvest accumulated from the gardens, after such time, can be used for succeeding feeding programs.

The core programs will be running simultaneously with the support program. The support programs include training on Disaster Resilience, Financial Literacy, Digital Citizenship, and WASH. We are collaborating with corporate partners who will provide technical assistance for the training modules. We are also working with our partner community organizations to localize these programs to ensure its impact.

Project KuBO goes beyond the regular feeding program for communities. By providing trainings on health and nutrition and establishing community/home gardens, our goal is not only to eradicate malnutrition but to help communities have continued access to readily available produce.