When Rise Against Hunger Philippines (RAHP) learned that more than 50% of produce was wasted at Nueva Vizcaya Agricultural Terminal, one of the largest vegetable trading posts in the country, their solution was clear: Find a way to redirect that food to local communities before it goes to waste.

Most produce that is wasted at the terminal, even though still fresh and nutritious, is discarded due to particularities like a vegetable’s look or size, which affects its ability to sell during trading. This selective process often leads to vegetables left to decay alongside local highways and mountainsides.

Following GFN-sponsored research on the impact of food waste at the trading post, RAHP’s partnership with Nueva Vizcaya Agricultural Terminal resulted in a new food bank, one that uses the barter system. When vegetables are deemed unsellable at the trading post, farmers can go to the food bank, which assesses and assigns market value to the produce, allowing local farmers to trade the vegetables for other food items, like canned goods or rice.

The Nueva Vizcaya food bank provides an opportunity for farmers to receive a return on their trading expenses. The food bank also provides school-aged children with meals using the produce recovered.

As farmers trade in their vegetables, RAHP uses the surplus to feed around 500 children across 10 schools through the food bank’s school feeding program initiative. The program serves schools with children facing the highest rates of malnutrition, supplying them with vegetables to bring home to their families daily.

Because of the program’s success, the community has grown in its overall connectedness. The schools supported by RAHP now work directly with bartering farmers to receive additional donations for children and their families. RAHP has also partnered with local churches, providing fresh vegetables using a “donate-what-you-can” model, with any donations supporting the school feeding program.

By engaging members of the community, RAHP promotes a sense of self-sufficiency that enables communities to continue addressing hunger.

“We should empower the communities …  to find creative ways of addressing hunger,” said Jomar Fleras, RAHP’s executive director.

Building on the spirit of giving back to the community, the food bank established a women-run food processing factory for the program’s next phase. To recover more food from the trading post, the factory will produce snacks from the vegetables collected in recovery, like squash chips, with extra emphasis on extending the life of highly perishable produce.

Once processed, the vegetable products will be sold to supermarkets in Manila, the country’s capital. The products will be sold using a “pay it forward,” concept: When a consumer buys a bag of chips made from the recovered produce, another bag will be provided to children in the food bank’s school feeding program.

What began as a way to prevent vegetable waste has grown into a network of support. Local farmers can recover agricultural expenses, school-aged children receive the nutritious produce they need to sustain a healthy diet, and women gain new skills and income through food processing.

“We have to look at the value chain and put value in the chain,” said Fleras, “… and that’s what we’re doing.”

For more insight from Jomar Fleras, listen to episode five of GFN’s Food For Change podcast