Every day at 4 a.m., volunteer parents and teachers converge at the Busog, Lusog, Talino (BLT) Kitchen in Agripino Alvarez Elementary School, Sipalay City, Negros Occidental. They clock out at 5 or 6 p.m., after serving hundreds of breakfast, lunch and dinner packs.​

The Sipalay BLT Kitchen used to serve lunch to undernourished schoolchildren through the BLT School Feeding Program of Jollibee Group Foundation, Department of Education, and City Government of Sipalay. But with school closed, it now nourishes frontliners and residents. “Mahirap maging frontliner kung gutom. May kitchen kami, bakit hindi namin gagamitin para makatulong (It’s hard to be a frontliner when you’re hungry. We have a kitchen, why not use it to help)?” said parent volunteer Ellen dela Cruz.​

Other volunteers have also come forward to pack and transport food. Asked what keeps them going, Ellen says it’s the pride that their own children feel, and the shared desire to see this crisis through.​

Photo courtesy of: Sipalay LGU​