Upon the instructions of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is now embarking on the modernization and capacity expansion of the agency’s family food pack (FFPs) production lines in Pasay City and in Cebu province, Secretary Rex Gatchalian posted on his X account on Tuesday (June 24).
The DSWD chief posted this agency update following his visit to the National Resource Operations Center (NROC) in Pasay City where he checked on the newly-installed mechanized packing system which is already operational.
The NROC’s new mechanized packing system will enable the DSWD to produce more family food packs (FFPs) daily and ensures that there are enough supplies at any given time nationwide, with FFP production increasing from 40,000 boxes to close to 70,000.
“We embarked on a modernization and capacity expansion program of our FFP production lines in Pasay and Cebu (these two hubs service all the regions during calamities). Before, cumulatively, we could produce 40k family food packs between two hubs, now we can produce close to 70k. This will ensure even faster disaster response,” the DSWD chief said on his post.
The mechanized system features three rice bagging machines for vacuum seal application. This feature gives the rice a longer shelf life and protects it from impurities.
The FFPs produced at the NROC and the Visayas Disaster Resource Center (VDRC) in Mandaue City, Cebu will be allocated for prepositioning to the different storage facilities nationwide.
To address issues relative to the tracking of expiry dates of supplies, the Department has also introduced a new barcoding system to track all FFPs.
“Also, a new bar coding system has been put in place for better inventory management to ensure that every food box is accounted for,” Secretary Gatchalian said.
Under the bar code system, details which pertain to the production of the FFPs are embedded. Once scanned, the bar code will show where the food boxes were produced, the date of production, and the shelf-life of the FFP contents.
More initiatives are currently being undertaken to further improve the warehouse operations and disaster response of the Department.
Secretary Gatchalian has given instructions for the creation of a system wherein automated notifications for the expiry of FFP materials are sent directly to the Central Office and simultaneously to all Field Offices.
The DSWD’s continuous innovations and enhancements are in support of the directive of the Chief Executive to ensure that the needs of the families affected by disasters are met on time so that they do not suffer more.
“All of these are in line with PBBM’s vision of faster and efficient disaster response to benefit more disaster affected Filipino families,” Secretary Gatchalian said. (GDVF)