The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has prepositioned 37,515 family food packs (FFPs) in strategic areas of Eastern Visayas in preparation for the rainy days.

The stock of food supplies worth PHP22.05 million will ensure faster delivery of relief goods in case of severe flooding and other disasters, lawyer Jonalyndie Chua, DSWD 8 (Eastern Visayas) information officer, said in a phone interview Wednesday.

Of the total, 1,031 FFPs are in Catbalogan City, Samar province; 1,650 in Naval town, Biliran; 14,243 in Allen, Northern Samar, 800 in Borongan City, Eastern Samar; and 15,791 at the DSWD regional resource operations center (RROC) in Palo town, Leyte.

The DSWD also prepositioned 600 FFPs in Almagro, Samar; 1,400 FFPs in Santo Niño, Samar; 1,000 FFPs in Taft, Eastern Samar, and 1,000 FFPs in Giporlos, Eastern Samar.

The food packs in Catbalogan are stored at the Philippine Army 8th Infantry Division headquarters while in Allen town, the Office of Civil Defense warehouse has been designated as a storage area.

In Borongan City, food packs are stored at the Eastern Samar State University campus.

In other provinces, FFPs are kept in local government facilities.

“The current volume is the capacity of our warehouses at any given time. If there are disasters, we will produce more as the need arises,” Chua said.

Each FFP contains six kilos of rice, four cans of corned beef, four cans of tuna flakes, two cans of sardines, five sachets of coffee, and five sachets of cereal drinks.

The DSWD has also prepared 14,342 non-food items worth PHP24.76 million. (PNA)