In Pampanga, chefs make sure frontliners won’t go hungry

APPRECIATION Meals prepared by chefs and restaurant owners in Pampanga are sent to hospital and security front-liners in the province with messages of appreciation and hope. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines — In November last year, when the country was bashed for feeding foreign athletes with unhealthy food, organizers of the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games tapped Kapampangan chefs to salvage the situation.

With Culinarya Pampanga constantly filling the mess hall of New Clark City in Tarlac province with nutritious and delicious meals, stomachs were appeased.

From serving as the country’s “face savers,” the chefs have since risen to the challenge posed by the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis by preparing meals for medical and security front-liners, as well as poor families in Angeles City and other towns in Pampanga.

Ten of them and their staff, plus the owners of 17 restaurants, have banded together to form Lugud Balen (“Love of Community”), or LB. Using P2,180,845 in cash donations as of April 19, LB had prepared 33,246 hot meal packs since March 26.

Transport volunteers, like Archie Reyes, Gadu Bernarte and Amos Rivera deliver the meals to medical workers and to poor households.

Cooking with a heart

“In the first week of the lockdown, hospitals were calling us for help. Restaurant owners answered by giving food, supplies or packaging materials. There was a surge of donations. We used those to bankroll this initiative,” said Chloe Cauguiran, one of the LB organizers.LB’s humanitarian effort has added a facet to Kapampangan cooking. The chefs not only cook well but also cook with a heart.

Involved in the civic endeavor are chefs Rennier Perez, Froilan Cruz, Dennis Lim, Howard Dizon, Josie Mendoza, Des Castro, Caren Kwong, Arcelli Timbol, Pons Garcia and Elsa Jocson. Catering to 2,000 athletes and 1,000 delegates in the SEA Games honed their skills in feeding large crowds.

The restaurants that help make LB going are Teaspoon Cafe, Lailen’s Pastries, My Lola Nor’s Meryendahan, Dainty, Village Chef, Ciocollo and Grand Pallazo Royal, Kabsarap, Everybody’s Cafe, Taldawa, Cafe Munding, Yami Bulgogi, Ottie’s, K Cafe and Toll House, Den Lim’s Kitchen, HD Catering and International Skills Training Academy.

They raise funds, provide support personnel and open their networks to LB.

Control tower collective

Cauguiran oversees a “control tower collective,” which handles the online purchases of raw materials and ingredients, and coordinates the efforts of LB committees that hold virtual meetings each day.

LB runs six kitchens in the cities of Angeles, Mabalacat and San Fernando. One of these is Taldawa, a bar specializing in goat meat cuisine. Its owner, Garcia, 22, used to be in Culinarya’s logistics team in the SEA Games and is now back cooking in the kitchen.

Cauguiran said she was amazed at the outpouring of kindness from people despite the difficult times.

Heartwarming messages

Kat Kat Ganzon has been giving small amounts daily as her way of helping ease hunger when mothers and fathers could not work during the quarantine.

On top of that, she writes heartwarming messages on the food packages. Other donors, like a man who gave P50,000, preferred to remain anonymous.

With the community quarantine extended, LB is partnering with the military in fielding mobile kitchens and distributing seedlings of fast-growing vegetables, according to Cauguiran.

“Sustainability is one matter we must be addressing. Doleouts are only good in the short term,” she said. INQ