To contribute to food security during the pandemic, by providing safe, nutritious, and ready-to-eat emergency foods to frontliners and selected Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources (AANR) communities in Davao Region, the project titled “Production and Distribution of Emergency Foods for COVID-19 Frontliners and Selected Marginalized Communities using FPIC-Davao Developed Technologies” was implemented through the support funding of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development - Southern Mindanao Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development Consortium (PCAARD-SMAARDEC). Through the project, FPIC-Davao in collaboration with the University of Southeastern Philippines distributed over 3600 sets of vacuum-fried squash chips and immunity-boosting fruit juice drinks namely calamansi-ginger, calamansi-sweet potato tops, and calamansi-blue ternate to the targeted beneficiaries.

Children are among the significant vulnerable groups due to food security during disasters as they face life-threatening risks life malnutrition. Hence, the project titled “Development of Emergency Foods for Young Children Ages One to Five Years Old” was implemented by the Philippine Women’s College of Davao through the support funding of the Department of Science and Technology - Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD). This study primarily aimed to develop safe and nutritious food products for children ages 1-5 years old during times of disasters when access to potable water and safe food is limited. The developed products under this project were the fruit-veggie leather, whole-grain cookies, all-veggie monggo meal, and all-veggie cornmeal porridge.

In compliance with the national call for security and self-sufficiency especially in times of emergency as experienced during the pandemic, FPIC-Davao has upgraded into toll facilities for a larger scale processing through the project titled “Development and Deployment of a Smart Toll Processing System for Vacuum-fried Mixed Chips, Spray-dried Buko Powder, and Thermally-processed Tuna Congee”, under implementation by the Philippine Women’s College of Davao, through the support funding of the Department of Science and Technology - Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD). This project aimed to establish an IT-enabled supply chain management system that allows higher levels of interconnectivity among the key players involved in multiple processes from agricultural production, processing, and distribution to sales to consumers.