The Quezon City government has bought 5.5 tons of squash from local farmers to include in the food packs that are being distributed to the special concern lockdown areas with high covid-19 cases in the city.

The produce were acquired by the city through the assistance of the Department of Agriculture Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service (DA-AMAS).

“Isinama natin itong mga kalabasa sa food packs na ipinamimigay natin sa mga pamilyang nasa special concern lockdown areas para mas masustansyang pagkain na ang kanilang maihanda sa kanilang hapag kainan,” Mayor Joy Belmonte said, who also heads the QC Task Force on Food Security.

“Kapag masustansyang pagkain na ang nakahain, magiging mas maganda ang immune system at resistensya na kailangan bilang panlaban sa mga sakit tulad ng COVID-19,” Mayor Joy added.

Aside from providing nutritious food, the city’s #GrowQC food security initiative looks into ways to improve the food system or the flow of food to the city. Futhermore, the #GrowQC program is committed to assist and support both local provincial and urban farmers by buying their produce and linking them to the city’s feeding programs.

According to Food Security Task Force Co-Chairman and Sustainable Development Affairs Unit (SDAU) chief Emmanuel Hugh Velasco, soon the GrowQC Mobile Kitchen will be serving hot meals in the most vulnerable and in need members of the city and where ingredients of these hot meals are to be sourced from our QC community farms.

“Pagkabili natin sa QC comunity urban farms, we will supply these sa ating Grow QC mobile kitchen para makapagluto ng masustansyang pagkain tulad ng super lugaw at veggie sopas at dadalhin natin ito sa mga komunidad na lubos na naapektohan ang kabuhayan dahil sa pandemya,” Velasco said.

The “Grow QC: Kasama ka sa Pag-unlad sa Pagkain, Kabuhayan, at Kalusugan food security initiative” empowers Qcitizens in addressing the food, employment and health challenges brought about by the pandemic.

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