To help small business owners weather the effects of the global health crisis, Jollibee Group Foundation (JGF) has partnered with Kasagana-Ka Development Center (KDCI) and Kabuhayan sa Ganap na Kasarinlan Credit and Savings Cooperative (KCoop) to assist and re-establish the operations of karinderyas from low-income communities in NCR, Bulacan, Cavite, and Rizal. Every karinderya that is that is part of the program serves meals to 20 families in their community for a period of 30 days.
JGF, KDCI, and K-Coop are all part of the COVID-19 Civil Society Sector Organizations & Private Sector Coalition (or NGO Collab), a group of civil society and private sector organizations that have banded together to address the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on varying issues in the Philippines.
Singapore-based Temasek Foundation and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the DEG (German Investment Corporation) also recognized the impact of the project and provided grants for the meal subsidy of family beneficiaries.
JGF provided karinderya owners with trainings on food preparation, food safety, and customer service. “All livelihood programs that we undertake in Jollibee Group Foundation are aimed at addressing the felt-need in communities and empowering beneficiaries so that they become self-sustaining. We have the same goal for Project Karinderya—we aim to help karinderya owners upskill themselves and develop the right mindset of persevering amid this pandemic,” said Jollibee Group Foundation Executive Director Gisela Tiongson.
Under the program, karinderya owners and their personnel were also required to wear face masks, face shields, hairnets, and aprons for safety. Karinderyas also used plastic coverings for the dishes and posted a daily menu to help customers choose their preferred food faster and to prevent overcrowding.
To ensure that the protocols and practices shared with the karinderya owners were being practiced, Health Cadet volunteers of KDCI visited karinderyas weekly during the project’s implementation to monitor the karinderyas’ compliance to the project guidelines.
As of February 2021, the partnership has served 30-day meal subsidies in the form of meal vouchers to 4,600 families through 230 karinderyas in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces.
Organizations who would like to support or replicate the project may get in touch with the NGO Collab secretariat at covid19phresponse@gmail.com.
