SINCE the launch of Mega Bigay Sustansya in 2019, Mega Prime Foods, Inc. (the company behind Mega Sardines and Tuna, among others) has fed more than 1,700 schoolchildren more than 370,000 meals.
On July 9, BusinessWorld took a tour of Mega Prime Foods’ factory in Sto. Tomas, Batangas. While we were being shown around, beneficiaries were treated to a graduation ceremony, where awards were given to children who had gained the most weight.
This is a hefty deal: Dawn Marie Cabigon, Founder of Reach Out Feed Philippines (Mega’s partner in the program), said that they used data from the Department of Education (DepEd) to find out where the highest incidence of hunger and growth stunting in the country occurs. Using this data, they reached out to public schools in Quezon, Batangas, Tacloban, Ormoc, and recently, Tawi-Tawi (the kids in Tawi-Tawi are yet to graduate from the program as it will run until July 29). In Tawi-Tawi, where the program has been ongoing for just about a month, they’ve already reduced the number of underweight children from 1.4% to 1.22%, and have increased the number of children gaining normal weight from 0.8% to 10%.
Ms. Cabigon said that one of the things they did was to teach households how to sneak vegetables into their children’s food (she noted that during relief operations, children who disliked vegetables would push them away in their plates). Products they have developed with Mega Prime Foods include fishballs and lumpia (spring rolls) with vegetables incorporated.
Marvin Tiu Lim, Chief Growth and Development Officer of Mega Prime Foods, Inc., told media guests during a group interview that although the number of their program’s beneficiaries have hit the six-digit mark, “That’s such a small fraction of the total population of people who have been stunted. We want to use this as an example, as a platform… to bring awareness that we really need to help. We can’t just do it alone. We’re encouraging other private companies to help us.”
FOCUSING ON SUSTAINABILITYAside from their corporate social responsibility program, Mr. Tiu Lim also told us about their sustainability measures at the factory, which include having some areas powered by solar energy, and practicing sustainable fishing methods (like closed fishing seasons from Feb. 15 to Nov. 15, and using appropriately sized nets to only capture adult fish).
The factory is their third, and the newest: they have two others in Zamboanga. The one in Batangas was inaugurated only last year. Combined, their daily yield can go up to three million cans a day.
Speaking again about Mega Bigay Sustansya, he said, “It will not solve world hunger. It will not resolve stunting. But the success is really seeing the kids, seeing the statistics.”
Mega Prime Foods is developing new products (we saw packages of ready-to-eat canned tuna dishes, and new sauces; they’re keeping new developments under wraps) and may consider an initial public offering in the future (the company is currently under the control of the Tiu Lim family). “We have plans to IPO in the coming years to share to the public as well,” said Mr. Tiu Lim. — J.L. Garcia
