NFA Bataan celebrates 43rd anniversary

CITY of BALANGA, Bataan – The National Food Authority celebrates its founding anniversary every 26th of September. For this year, the Bataan Provincial Office, headed by Manager Adelaida C. Nuestro opted to hold its celebration on September 23, 2015, which started with a thanksgiving mass officiated by Father Abe Pantig.

NFA-Bataan’s annual bloodletting activity dubbed as “Dugo Mo, Sagip-Buhay Ko”, which is now on its 14th year, immediately followed after the mass. The activity was conducted in coordination with the Philippine Red Cross-Bataan Chapter headed by their Administrator, Mr. Charlie M. Gatbunton, Jr., the Bataan Grains Retailers’ Association (BAGRETAS) and the NFA-Bataan Employees Association.

Volunteer-blood donors were composed mostly of NFA accredited rice retailers and their friends and relatives and some employees of NFA Bataan. Dr. Joseph Quan from Bataan General Hospital and Dr. Roberto Lucas, Jr., a private practitioner volunteered for the event to ensure that health qualifications of donors were met.

The week-long celebration also launched the Food Guardian campaign which aims to invite volunteers from all walks of life, to act as the agency’s soldiers in ensuring that food security is attained. The campaign aims to gather one million volunteers for 100 million Filipinos, hence the hash tag 1for100iNFAntry.

Another part of the celebration was the open warehouse which invited stakeholders and media personnel to visit NFA warehouses all over the country for them to see the current state of the agency’s buffer stocks as well as have an idea on proper storage of rice and palay.

For Bataan’s part, we have invited members of local media and some NFA-accredited rice retailers to attend a brief discussion on the agency’s buffer stocks as well as our operations and accomplishments at GID Warehouse located in Roman Super Highway, Balanga City. Guests were welcomed by GID Warehouse Supervisor, Mr. Edwin del Rosario.

The retailers and local media were given a tour of the warehouse right after the brief presentation, wherein Manager Adelaida Nuestro assured everyone that rice supply is more than sufficient to cover the needs of Bataeños and that good quality and affordable rice is readily available for the public.