Food for the soul

The entire country was plunged into sadness. For those of us who couldn’t even begin to imagine the horror of what our brothers and sisters went through, even just a few minutes of the news was enough to not just sympathize but to empathize with them. Tears would stream down my face, which would gradually turn into inconsolable sobs. No one should have to go through such pain, loss and devastation. Even when I would have something to eat, the very thought that so many had none would bring on the same reaction. It is a collective gut-wrenching sadness that inhabited every moment. I was speaking to my husband about this — that every waking moment I wanted to just cry and pray. That everything else I did made me feel guilty for having so much while so many had none. He looked at me and said, “We have to go on. Life has to go on. We need to help as much as we can and at the same time push forward, keep the economy turning, to keep things going. It is the only way our country will get through this.”

Though it is difficult to see the silver lining behind such nefarious clouds, the days that followed Yolanda were a beacon of hope for humanity. Everyone joined in the humanitarian effort. From large-scale foreign aid to heartfelt written notes by schoolchildren to businesses, socialites, fashionistas … even the prisoners of Muntinlupa jail gave up their meals to help the effort. Just as much as the dark collective sadness had filled our souls, it gave birth to a uniting force of goodwill and love.

Some relief efforts, however, seemed a little more controversial than others. As social media was abuzz with all sorts of opinions, statements, words of critique and encouragement alike, some people were dubious about the efforts made by the food and beverage industry. Last week, all we heard was the industry crying out “dine for a cause” and some people cried back, “It’s just a marketing ploy.”

One of the first that was up all over social media was chef JP Anglo’s “Sarsa,” which dedicated an entire day’s sales to ABS-CBN’s Sagip Kapamilya Group.

“I’m from Bacolod, which was spared,” he says. “It’s our way of giving back for all the blessings we’ve received. Also, we could raise more money for the typhoon victims that way. We planned it on Sunday afternoon (Nov. 10), blasted it on social media that evening, and I guess people just passed it around. People really wanted to help and eat for a cause. It’s amazing.”

Unusually, he posted the receipt of the donation made to Red Cross online. “Well, we got hit by two typhoons: Yolanda and Napoles. We felt we needed to be transparent.”

Still brainstorming with his partners on what to do next, he feels it should go on. “The next effort needs to be sustainable, not a one-shot deal. But we are still doing fundraising efforts in private. We can’t afford to stop.” 

Yolanda Action Weekend (YAW) organized by Jeremy Sagle, a.k.a. “Mr. Delicious,” had a multitude of the capital’s F&B establishments come together for the weekend of November 16-17 and pledged 20 percent of their gross sales to the Red Cross.  Beginning with his co-market vendors, others joined in through social media, making it one of the biggest industry-wide charity projects.

“To call it ‘put-together’ might be a bit of a boast,” he says. “As more and more people joined, our social media reach multiplied. Our friends in the local food media were also eager to use their resources to help, so they really gave us the push to curate so many businesses. By Wednesday we began promoting the drive to the public. By this point it had a life of its own and I was just a small part of the push. The use of simple social media hashtags also made it easy to spread and connect existing pockets of people who were already interested in helping. This community is truly amazing and it was not at all hard to convince these people to give. Most of the F&B businesses actually approached me. They had friends who were already involved and they wanted to help, too.”

Get your own

Some netizens frowned upon the small percentage, believing that restaurants were using the guise of “donations” to drum up business. “The basic idea was that, although individually our contributions may be small, collectively we can make a real impact. For many of our participants, 20 percent of gross sales may be equal to or greater than 100 percent of net proceeds once all costs and overhead are subtracted, especially considering we ran ours for two days. But this really isn’t the point. Across the Metro, some businesses decided to give either 100 percent of proceeds for one day, 50 percent of sales of a specific product, P5 per specific product sold, etc. The point is that they gave, because relief operations run on cash and this is how cash is raised in the real world, not on smugness and self-righteous Internet trolling. This local food community gave without hesitation and, in most cases, without being asked. For that they will always have my respect.”

Chef Him Uy de Baron of Nomama Ramen not only joined YAW but also has a continuous effort till the end of the month. For every Nomama Ramen you order, P50 is given to Habitat for Humanity’s Yolanda effort as well as P100 for every Beef Cheek Ramen.  “Our main motivation in doing this is hopefully what we contribute brings a bit of comfort to those who really need it,” Him says. “That people care and that God hasn’t forgotten them.  Giving through this is just one of many avenues; these collective efforts all end up in one place that hopefully speaks much louder than any of these ignorant rants.”

Abba Napa of the Moment Group responsible for concepts like ’Cue and Burger Bar, which joined YAW, said that there was no need to convince partners to join the effort. Everyone was ready and willing. As for their naysayers, “Everyone has an opinion. Not always are they founded on facts or a firm grasp of reality. I and many other restaurateurs and chefs I know were aware that there was the possibility of negativity from naysayers with establishments coming together to support the cause in this way. But we decided to push through with it regardless of that. It’s the objective that matters. And it is a first step of many that I’m sure the F&B scene will come together to do. When appropriate, I know a lot of us want to be a part of rehabilitation and sustainable redevelopment. These programs we can do personally and privately. No one may come to know about them.  Does that make it more honorable than rallying support through our establishments? They both achieve objectives to help, no?”

Perhaps the most controversial of them all is the event happening tonight, Nov. 21, at United Republiq — a large-scale party with international DJs that has become a 100-percent-fundraising event. It seems ironic to party for a cause and some say even in poor taste to simply push through with it. “A production team of over 40 people has been working on this project for months now and after Typhoon Yolanda happened, our core team met and we discussed options,” shares Kimberly Yao, VP for marketing of the group behind Republiq, Prive and Opus. “In the process of deciding whether to proceed with the event or not, I got on a call with Axwell’s manager. In case you’re not familiar with him, Axwell is the lead DJ in the Grammy award-winning trio Swedish House Mafia. During the course of that call, Axwell expressed that he wanted to donate his entire fee to the victims of the typhoon. Nicky Romero and No_ID, the other foreign DJs, are also on board. With that, we looked back at all the work we have done and decided that this is what we do best. We stage events. We let amazing artists perform and the Filipino people love their music. And what better way to give back than to raise funds doing what we do best and doing what we love?”  

By donating most of the budget meant to fund the event, including the talent fees of the artists as well as 100 percent of ticket sales to the ABS CBN Sagip Kapamilya Foundation and other citizens’ action programs that are more direct and on the ground at the calamity sites, as of today, their committed amount is over P7 million in cash with an expected P3 million more in ticket sales, for an estimated total amount of P10 million for the cause. This figure alone is enough to put their naysayers down.

“We recognize that it’s not the usual way of giving back to the people, but it’s the way we know how to give back by doing what we do best,” Yao says. “At Republiq Club every night until the end of the year, we are donating our door charge. In the past three weeks since the typhoon hit, we have raised over P450,000 that we have already donated to various citizen action groups. We are looking to raise over 1.5M cash until the end of the year. Many people may say what we are doing is controversial but at the end of the day, this is what we do and we are giving back so much.”

Does it really matter how we help, as long as we do? Can one truly measure how much more “honorable” one form is than another? Whether we pledge our time, our funds, our knowledge, what could be more honorable than helping by doing what you do best? As for the critics, chef Fern Aracama of Aracama Manila says it best: “If there were naysayers, we didn’t notice. We were too busy preparing and promoting for the cause. When you pour your heart out in the belief that what you’re about to do will make a difference in people’s lives, you become incredibly positive and impervious to negative and unsolicited advice.”

Kudos to my colleagues and friends in the food industry. Keep up the good work! You have our full support!

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Yolanda Action Weekend is still auditing and tallying the amount they raised in partnership with the Red Cross. Once I get feedback on the sum, I will happily keep my readers updated.