DA to donate brown rice to various charities

• Source: http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/da-donate-brown-rice-various-charities/
• Thursday, January 26, 2017

(BusinessMirror)

The #BROWN4good Challenge, a social-media campaign of the Department of Agriculture (DA), is donating more than a million pesos worth of brown rice to chosen charities nationwide.

To start the donations at the National Capital Region (NCR), celebrities Kylie Padilla and Mikael Daez distributed packs of brown rice to over 200 families in Payatas, Quezon City, on January 19. They also helped serve brown-rice arroz caldo to children from the said community in coordination with the local government of Payatas, Komunidad Kay Kristo (KKK-Payatas) and the ladies of Bayan Muna-Payatas.

The rest of the brown-rice donations for NCR will be given by ABS-CBN Foundation to over 400 families from communities along the Pasig River.

Meanwhile, regional donations have already started in the cities of Cebu, Davao and Iloilo, among others. Beneficiaries include elders, indigenous peoples, street children and drug rehabilitees at charitable institutions supported by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Combining hash-tagging, selfie/food photography and the challenge craze, the #BROWN4good Challenge enjoined the public to do “four goodness” simply by eating brown rice. Every photo of a brown-rice meal posted in social media from August 28 to December 5, 2016, with a hashtag was equated to a cup of brown rice for the charities.

The DA said the campaign was a way to inform the public of the four goodness of brown rice: personal goodness considering its health benefits; goodness to the farmers; goodness for the country, as brown rice has 10 percent higher milling recovery; and for others, such as the beneficiaries of the chosen charities who will receive brown rice for their consumption.

“We’re happy that many were encouraged to eat brown rice because of the challenge. They had different motivations. But whatever that is, we are glad they committed to eat brown rice regularly, with some even committing for life,” said Hazel V. Antonio, campaign director of the Be Riceponsible Campaign.

The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) said brown rice is unpopular among low- and middle-income classes, despite its health benefits, because of its high price. By commissioning farmers’ cooperatives to be suppliers of good-quality brown rice and linking them to retailers and food establishments, PhilRice was able to make it available in major cities at P37 to P45 per kilogram.

“While it was made around 40 percent cheaper than in malls, farmers were still able to get income of as much as six times higher because of the project. Thus, consumers were able to afford it while also increasing the income of farmers,” Antonio said.

“The #BROWN4good Challenge proved that Filipinos are just deterred by the high price of brown rice. Given more affordable and accessible supply, more would be willing to embrace it for good. Thus, the challenge that DA would continue to address,” she added.

The #BROWN4good Challenge is part of the bigger campaign, dubbed as Be Riceponsible, a social mobilization initiative created to spread awareness on the value of every rice grain and to encourage the consumption of healthier rice options, such as brown or unpolished white rice.