Corazon Obenieta, coordinator of the TN outlets in South Cotabato, said officials of DSWD in Region 12 endorsed the opening of more TN stores in the area due to the inability of the current operational outlets to serve all families classified as below the food threshold.
She said only 12 TN stores manned by multi-purpose cooperatives are currently operating in the province’s 10 towns and lone city.
The province was earlier identified as one of the 49 priority areas by the National Nutrition Council’s Food for School Program due to the based on the noted hunger incidence.
The DSWD and the provincial government of South Cotabato initially identified 12 multi-purpose cooperatives in the different areas of the province as TN outlets.
Obenieta said the 175 proposed TN outlets will be distributed in various parts of the province, especially in areas where cases of hunger were previously monitored.
She said the DSWD will allocate P20,000 pesos as capital for each of the proposed TN stores.
For the distribution scheme, Obenieta said rice and noodles allocation would be sold to the identified beneficiaries at prices prescribed by the National Food Authority (NFA).
According to the program’s guidelines, a family of six may avail of weekly rice allocation computed based on the daily allocation of 0.32 kg per member. The allocation was based on the per capita consumption of 115 kgs.
Each family-beneficiary may only purchase the quantity of rice equivalent to their weekly allocation. The same quantity is the prescribed limit for a single purchase.
The owner or operator of a TN outlet or store may also sell other commodities, which may be sourced from NFA or other suppliers.
Each family-beneficiary would be issued an identification card cum passbook by the local government unit and the social welfare office for identification and monitoring purposes.
The beneficiaries are required to present the passbook when purchasing food supplies from the TN stores or outlets. All the purchases in connection with program would be recorded in the passbook.
