A recent Social Weather Stations survey indicates that more Filipinos experienced involuntary hunger in the first quarter of the year, the highest since 20221, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The results of the survey conducted on March 21 to 25 showed that 14.2 percent of respondents said their families experienced involuntary hunger, or “being hungry and not having anything to eat at least once” in the past three months. That statistic is up from 12.6 percent from December 2023 and is the highest since the 16.8 percent hunger rate recorded in May 2021.
The March hunger rate is comprised of 12.2 percent of respondents who said they experienced moderate hunger, and 2.0 percent who experienced severe hunger. Moderate hunger is defined as hunger experienced “only once” or “a few times” in the last three months, while severe hunger refers to those who experience it “often” or “always” in the last three months.
The hunger rate reached double digits in most areas except Mindanao, where it dropped by over four percentage points. It was highest among respondents in Metro Manila at 19 percent, followed by the rest of Luzon at 15.3 percent, the Visayas at 15 percent, and Mindanao at 8.7 percent.
As with previous polls, the hunger rate was higher among those who rated their families as “poor” than those who were “not poor” and “borderline poor.” It decreased among “poor” families, and increased among the “not poor” and “borderline poor.” As the persistent duo of hunger and poverty remains a nagging challenge for many Filipinos, the more effort our government must exert to eradicate it, not to look good in surveys or international rankings, but to save its people from that kind of life where often and always hungry has become normal among those who have unable to extract themselves from vulnerability to extreme hunger and poverty. Aside from providing the adequate social safety nets, opportunities for education, employment, and further development will have to be a priority.*
