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Pilipinas Kontra Gutom helps lower hunger incidence in the country

Pilipinas Kontra Gutom is a multi-sectoral movement of Task Force Zero Hunger with the public sector and 80 partner members from private corporations and non-government organizations working hand in hand to address the country’s concerns on involuntary hunger – food production and distribution, malnutrition, food surplus and immediate food needed during times of disasters.

Published

4 years ago

April 21, 2022

ZestMag.com Staff

More than a year after its launch in November 2020, Pilipinas Kontra Gutom (PKG) partners share milestones towards the movement’s goal of less hungry Filipinos.

Four-Fold Mission

Divide and conquer is one of the guiding principles of the movement. Multi-sectoral working groups were set up targeting specific beneficiaries and focused on different priorities toward achieving zero hunger in the country.

First priority is food availability and accessibility with the vision to elevate farming as a dignified, sustainable profession among smallholder farmers and other food producers. The goal is to increase farmer income by as much as 20% in the first year and double productivity by 2025. Key programs include the expansion of value chain projects by partner companies through capacity building and logistics improvement in the farm-to-consumer process.

Second is the nutrition adequacy goal. The group is eyeing zero undernourished Filipino children across all households by 2030. The key program to drive this objective involves a sustainable, nutrition education program for pregnant mothers that guides them during the first 1000 days of a child and teaches them how to build a healthy food culture at home through nutritious, delicious yet budget-friendly recipes for the family.

Food assistance and security during disasters is the third priority of the movement. A strengthened and synchronized public and private sectors’ disaster response initiatives during disasters to ensure efficient food distribution is the end in mind.

Food banking is the landmark project for availability and assistance which is the fourth priority. The aim is to establish an effective food banking system in Metro Manila that will help supply and ensure a sustainable flow of food to communities in need.

Milestones

On food availability and accessibility, 4,000 farmers and agripreneurs have been assisted through programs such as Nestle and GIZ’s Project Coffee+, TESDA-Nestle’s Coffee Farmer Scholarship Program, Cargil’s Yellow Corn Project with Aboitiz, Cargill, Bayer, Pilmico, Vitarich, Save the Children and PPSA, and Learning Series led by Jollibee Group Foundation with Harbest and PPSA. These initiatives have benefitted communities in Cagayan, Bukidnon, Sultan Kudarat and CAR, and helped enable local growers with capacity building, best practices on value chain, and income growth assistance. For the Corn Project alone, improved production and resiliency resulted in corn farmers increasing income by at least 10%. For Project Coffee+, the average yield of 1,500 coffee farmers has doubled and the average income has tripled.

Another program that helps with food availability and accessibility is Feed Back, a community-based vegetable exchange, that helps solve hunger in just 5 weeks. It creates a path for families to source food from their backyards, exchange excess produce with their neighbors, and sell to their own community, nearby villages and towns. The program paves way to new entrepreneurs and new local, regenerative and equitable food systems. To date, 11 communities have graduated from Feed Back and 26 communities are currently starting or implementing it. Community partnerships grew by 5x and span 7 provinces. In the 37 communities, ARK Feed Back is helping a total of 9,785 families and transforming 43,742 lives.

On nutrition adequacy, Kain Tayo Pilipinas, a public-facing campaign, had been launched last July 2021 to promote public awareness of the issue of malnutrition and drive participation in the advocacy through donations. The campaign raised a total amount of PHP 1.5 million to date from individual public donors and corporate donations from Fluor, Greenbulb Communications, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, Publicis Groupe, Teleperformance and Unilever. More than P25 million worth of media values were also given by ABS-CBN, GMA and Facebook for the campaign. Details of the campaign can be found at kaintayopilipinas.com. The donations will be used to fund the roll-out of the First 1000 days nutrition education program in hotspot areas under the adequacy goal.

On-ground partners World Food Programme, Gawad Kalinga, Kabisig ng Kalahi, Rise Against Hunger, Project Pearls, ABS-CBN Foundation, GMA Foundation, Department of Social Welfare and Development, and Nutrition Council of the Philippines have all been trained on the First 1000 days nutrition education materials and how to cascade to their beneficiaries.

In the area of assistance during times of crisis, the group collaborates with local and national organizations, corporations, civil society groups and local government units to execute efforts for the victims of calamities, and pre-evacuation for typhoon affected families.

In November 2020, PKG founding members – Coca-Cola, Dole Philippines, Johnson & Johnson Philippines, McDonald’s, Metrobank and San Miguel, initially pledged 100,000 meals for identified communities in NCR and key priority areas. To date, 110, 765 meals have been distributed.

A Mobile Kitchen was set up in Eastern Visayas to provide nutritious meals to 1,000 children for a month-long period. As of today, a total of 27,000 meals were already distributed. Communities in Jipapad, Hirnani and San Julian, Eastern Samar were covered by this initiative.

In addition, Kain Tayo sa Pasko Hot Meals donation drive which ran from November 2021 to February 2022 was able to provide 1,900 noche buena packages, 11,230 meals, 132,076 assorted items (milk, chocolates, peanut butter, sinigang mixes), and 28,992 canned goods have been distributed to beneficiaries. These areas include NCR, Cebu, Davao, Dinagat Islands, Ifugao, Iloilo, Pampanga, Siargao, and Surigao.

Meanwhile, 63,600 meals and 11,714 food packs were served in affected areas in Visayas and Mindanao for Typhoon Odette efforts. Agusan Del Norte, Bohol, Cebu, Dinagat Islands, Eastern Samar, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Palawan, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Surigao and Siargao are the areas reached by the Typhoon Odette efforts.

These were made possible through the contributions of Century Pacific, Coca-Cola, Dole Philippines, Gawad Kalinga, Johnson & Johnson, Jollibee Group Foundation, Manila Water Foundation, Metrobank Foundation, Mondelez, Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation, RFM, Ronald McDonald House Charities, San Miguel Corporation, Supply Chain Management Association of the Philippines, Tanging Yaman Foundation and Unilever.

On availability of food surplus and repurposing it through assistance, a food bank portal has been set up by this team where companies and groups can key in their food surplus to be distributed via the Assistance workstream. Through the collaboration of DOLE, Grab, San Miguel Corporation, URC, Scaling Up Nutrition and Supply Chain Management Association of the Phils., the goal is to establish an effective food banking system that will help supply and sustain food to communities in need.

Lahat kasali, lahat kasalo.

To date, the movement has reached more than 450,000 Filipinos across its four-fold mission where incidences of hunger and malnutrition are high.

In a recent PKG gathering, Task Force Zero Hunger Chair, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles shared that the hunger incidence in the country has improved. “The Philippines also improved its ranking in the 2021 Global Hunger Index. The Philippines ranked 68th out of 116 countries. With a score of 16.8, we have a level of hunger that is moderate. This is a notch higher than in the 2020 GHI when we ranked 69th with a score of 19.0,” shared Chair Nograles.

PKG invites every Filipino to help. Lahat kasali, lahat kasalo. Individuals may visit kaintayopilipinas.com for details and private corporations, non-profit organizations and groups who would like to be part of the movement may send an email to pkg@ph.mcd.com.

Related Topics:corporate social responsibility health wellness

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The look and feel of your neighborhood may affect your sleep

Those living in neighborhoods rated as having a stronger sense of safety tended to sleep longer, and that this rating appeared to be shaped by the streetscape.

Published

3 weeks ago

August 25, 2026

ZestMag.com Staff

Your neighborhood’s “streetscape”—the physical environment of your street—is something that you have probably never consciously thought about, despite seeing it every day. But what if the streetscape was affecting you on a subconscious level and disrupting your sleep?

This intriguing question is posed by the findings of a study led by Professor Daisuke Matsushita of the Graduate School of Human Life and Ecology at Osaka Metropolitan University. The research team used AI to analyze more than 200,000 Google Street View images to identify visual neighborhood characteristics. They then linked these characteristics to the self-reported sleep of 1,089 working adults living on the lower floors of apartments in Tokyo, who were most likely to be affected by the streetscape.

They found that those living in neighborhoods rated as having a stronger sense of safety tended to sleep longer, and that this rating appeared to be shaped by the streetscape. Generally, people slept longer in areas with lots of greenery, such as leafy trees, on the street. Similarly, high “enclosure”—meaning many tall vertical buildings and few wide-open spaces—was also associated with longer sleep and fewer insomnia symptoms.

However, the study also made a surprising finding. The researchers found that highly walkable streetscapes, such as those with more sidewalks and traffic signs, were associated with a lowered sense of safety and shortened sleep duration.

This suggests that walkability does not always represent a reassuring environment. Instead, a possible explanation is that streets with extensive pedestrian infrastructure are often busier, more crowded, and used by more strangers, which may be perceived as less safe or less relaxing than quieter residential streets.

“This study demonstrates the potential for evaluating streetscape characteristics across large geographic areas in a cost-effective manner,” Dr. Matsushita said. “Based on the technique used in this study, cities could potentially measure perceived safety, beauty, liveliness, and enclosure as well as pollution and noise.”

“We hope that opening up this new perspective creates further possibilities for designing healthier neighborhoods,” he concludes.

The findings were published in Building and Environment.

NewsMakers

Workout or nap? Either can help your sleepless brain, study finds

People who either completed 20 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise or took a 90-minute nap performed about 22 per cent better on memory tests after 30 hours without sleep than those who did neither.

Published

3 weeks ago

August 25, 2026

ZestMag.com Staff

A short workout or a nap can help protect memory after a sleepless night, a McGill University-led study has found.

Researchers found people who either completed 20 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise or took a 90-minute nap performed about 22 per cent better on memory tests after 30 hours without sleep than those who did neither. The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), point to practical ways to counter the effects of sleep deprivation.

“Sleep loss affects nearly every aspect of how we think and function, but many people can’t simply stop what they’re doing and get more sleep,” said senior author Marc Roig, Professor in McGill’s School of Physical and Occupational Therapy. “Our findings show that even a brief bout of exercise may help preserve one of our most important cognitive abilities.”

The study involved 54 healthy young adults who stayed awake for 30 consecutive hours under lab supervision. Participants were then assigned to one of three groups: a 20-minute cycling session, a 90-minute nap or a control condition. Three days later, researchers tested their memory for images they had viewed immediately after the intervention. Those who exercised or napped remembered significantly more images than participants who did neither.

Same result, different pathways

While the memory benefits were nearly identical, brain recordings revealed that exercise and napping helped in different ways.

Napping appeared to help the brain recharge, making it easier to take in and remember new information. Exercise, by contrast, helped the brain use its remaining resources more efficiently, without making participants feel more tired.

The findings could eventually inform fatigue-management strategies in workplaces where sleep loss is common and mistakes can have serious consequences, such as health care, transportation and emergency response.

“A nap isn’t always possible in the middle of a shift,” said first author Madhura Lotlikar, a doctoral candidate in McGill’s Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery. “Exercise is accessible, inexpensive and easy to implement. That makes it a promising tool to help people stay cognitively sharp when sleep is limited.”

The researchers emphasize that exercise cannot replace sleep, but it may help people function better when getting enough rest isn’t possible.

About the study

“Protecting episodic memory after sleep loss: Similar benefits of exercise and naps via distinct neural contributions” by Madhura Lotlikar and Marc Roig et al., was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

NewsMakers

Study links coffee consumption to metabolic health and sex hormones

Despite having a similar body mass index (BMI), individuals with higher coffee consumption had lower total and visceral fat and greater skeletal muscle mass than those who consumed less coffee.

Published

4 weeks ago

August 17, 2026

ZestMag.com Staff

Coffee is one of the world’s most widely consumed beverages, and previous research has linked its consumption to a lower risk of conditions such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. However, the biological mechanisms behind these benefits remain unclear. A new Finnish study links habitual coffee consumption to healthier body composition and metabolic markers, while revealing distinct associations with sex hormones in men and women.

The study, conducted at the University of Oulu, analysed data from 2,264 participants aged 46 in the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966. Researchers examined how habitual coffee consumption was associated with circulating metabolites, cardiometabolic risk markers and sex hormones.

Despite having a similar body mass index (BMI), individuals with higher coffee consumption had lower total and visceral fat and greater skeletal muscle mass than those who consumed less coffee.

In both men and women, higher coffee consumption was correlated with lower circulating levels of branched-chain amino acids, biomarkers that have previously been linked to insulin resistance and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes when chronically elevated.

The strongest sex-specific associations were observed in men. Higher coffee consumption was linked to a more favourable glucose–insulin profile, higher concentrations of total and bioavailable testosterone, and increased levels of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). At the same time, free testosterone and the free androgen index were modestly lower. In women, hormonal associations were more limited and were primarily characterised by higher SHBG and lower measures of free androgens.

“Coffee is consumed by millions of people every day, yet we still know surprisingly little about how it relates to our metabolism and hormones. What stood out in our findings was a distinct hormonal signature that didn’t disappear even after we took into account BMI and lifestyle factors, with several of these associations differing between men and women,” says Luca Verroest, lead author of the study and Doctoral Researcher at the University of Oulu.

The results suggest that hormonal pathways may partly explain the relationship between coffee consumption and metabolic health. However, as this was an observational study, the findings demonstrate associations rather than cause-and-effect relationships.

The study is particularly relevant in Finland, one of the world’s highest coffee-consuming countries, where annual consumption averages around 11.8 kilograms per person.

The researchers say the findings provide a foundation for future studies aimed at determining whether coffee itself drives these biological changes and identifying the compounds responsible. These questions are currently being investigated in animal models, with the long-term goal of progressing to human intervention studies. Further research will be needed before the findings could inform dietary recommendations.

The study, Associations of habitual coffee intake with testosterone and cardiometabolic markers: the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 study, has been published in the European Journal of Nutrition.