26/08/2026
BACOLOD CITY, NEGROS OCCIDENTAL โ Now on its fourth year of advancing food rescue and food security initiatives, youth-led social enterprise Sagup Negros Inc. officially relaunched its Community Pantry and Carinderia on August 24, 2026 as part of its efforts to reduce food waste and ensure that surplus food reaches communities and families who need it most.
The relaunch was graced by Ms. Francesca Ciccomartino, Programme Manager of the Delegation of the European Union to the Philippines; Councilor Em Ang, Sangguniang Panlungsod Member; Anthony Marzan, Maricel Tolentino, and Gil Portillo of KAISAHAN; and Kevin Gaitan of the Negrosanon Young Leaders Institute Inc. (NYLI).
Funded by the European Union, through scale-up grant of the Sagup Food Circles Project, a consortium of Kaisahan Tungo sa Kaunlaran ng Kanayunan at Repormang Pansakahan (KAISAHAN) and the Negrosanon Young Leaders Institute (NYLI) Inc. The grant supports the expansion of Sagup Negros; services and programs through the strengthening of its two food centers and the development of a more comprehensive food rescue and redistribution system.
Founded in 2022, Sagup Negros works at the intersection of food waste reduction and food insecurity, demonstrating how food that would otherwise be discarded can be redirected toward social and economic value.
๐๐๐ฌ๐๐ฎ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ฌ, ๐๐๐๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐ข๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐๐ฌ
The Sagup Community Pantry rescues food surplus from local market vendors and farmer groups, including AECA clusters organized by KAISAHAN, and redistributes these resources to individuals and families experiencing food insecurity.
The Community Pantry serves as a mechanism for connecting available food surplus with people who need additional food support, while also helping prevent edible food from unnecessarily becoming waste.
Meanwhile, the Sagup Carinderia transforms rescued food surplus into value-added products for sale, demonstrating another pathway for extending the useful life and value of food resources.
Together, the two centers form an integrated model that connects food rescue, redistribution, value addition, livelihood, and food waste reduction.
๐๐๐ค๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐
๐จ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐๐จ๐๐๐ฅ ๐
๐ฎ๐ซ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ซ
The scale-up grant enables Sagup Negros to expand its work beyond its existing operations and strengthen its engagement across the local food system.
One of the key directions of the scale-up is to extend food rescue efforts to producers and farmers, recognizing that food surplus can occur not only at markets and households but also at the production level.
The initiative will also strengthen value addition, exploring ways to transform rescued food into products that can generate additional economic value while reducing food waste.
Another important component is to position food surplus as a resource for disaster response, developing systems for its recovery, storage, processing, and redistribution during emergencies.
The scale-up also seeks to contribute to the institutionalization of food rescue, food
redistribution, and food waste management at the local government level, helping move these practices from individual initiatives toward systems that can be sustained and replicated.
โThe scale-up allows us to see food rescue not just as an activity, but as part of a larger system. We want to connect farmers, vendors, communities, social enterprises, and local governments so that food surplus can be redirected where it creates the most value,โ said Coleen Awit of Sagup Negros Inc.
๐๐ฎ๐ข๐ฅ๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐จ๐ง ๐๐๐๐จ๐ฅ๐จ๐ ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐ญ๐จ ๐
๐จ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐ ๐๐๐๐ฎ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง
The relaunch comes alongside an important policy development in Bacolod City, the passage of Ordinance No. 1144, otherwise known as the Food Waste Reduction and Sustainable Food Practices Ordinance of Bacolod City.
The ordinance strengthens the city commitment to reducing food waste and promoting more sustainable food practices. For Sagup Negros, this development provides an important policy environment for initiatives that demonstrate how food rescue, redistribution, and food waste management can be implemented at the community level.
Sagup Negros experience also highlights the potential for community-based solutions to complement local government policies, creating practical pathways for reducing food waste while addressing food insecurity.
๐
๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ ๐๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐
๐จ๐จ๐ ๐๐ข๐ซ๐๐ฅ๐
As Sagup Negros enters its fourth year, the relaunch of its community pantry and carinderia represents more than the reopening of its food centers. It marks the organization continued transition toward a broader food circle approach, one that considers the entire journey of food, from producers and markets to communities and consumers.
Through this approach, food surplus can be rescued from farmers and vendors, redistributed to food-insecure families, transformed into value-added products, or mobilized as a resource during disasters.
The initiative ultimately seeks to demonstrate that food waste and food insecurity are interconnected challenges that can be addressed through interconnected solutions.
For Sagup Negros, building a food-secure and sustainable community means ensuring that resources are not wasted while people go without.
โFood should nourish people, not end up as waste. Through Sagup, we are working
to build the connections and systems that allow surplus food to continue serving a
purpose,โ the organization said.
The August 24 relaunch brought together partners, community stakeholders, and supporters of food rescue and food security as Sagup Negros began its next phase of operations and expanded its commitment to building a more circular, inclusive, and resilient local food system in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental.
Photo courtesy: NYLI Inc.
