MANILA, Philippines - In a continuing cooperative effort to combat global hunger, TNT and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) have joined forces to mount the largest airlift of food relief yet to the Philippines, flying in a total of 200 metric tons of high-energy biscuits for victims of the recent floods.
The shipment, another endeavor in the “Moving the World” partnership between TNT and WFP, will take place in two stages – a 100-metric ton shipment that arrived last Friday and a second 100 metric tons on Oct. 24.
The food assistance will be loaded from Izmir, Turkey, and will be flown to the Philippines on TNT’s Boeing 747-400 Extended Range Freighter.
Most of the 200 tons of biscuits, fortified with essential vitamins and minerals, will be used in supplementary feeding programs to enhance the nutritional health of pregnant women, nursing mothers and children under five years.
“Tens of thousands of young mothers and children are going to benefit as a result of this generous gesture on the part of TNT,” said Stephen Anderson, WFP country director. “We owe TNT an enormous debt of gratitude for providing this service, which will save us close to $750,000 in shipping costs. And we are also extremely grateful to the Government of Australia, who provided WFP with $1.75 million in cash, part of which has been used to purchase the biscuits.”
In addition to this, TNT coordinated with WFP in bringing more food aid to the Philippines. According to country general manager of TNT in the Philippines Cetin Yalcin, “This new shipment was coordinated in a relatively short period. We obtained approval from our head offices Tuesday morning and in a couple of days, the supplier started production and we’re flying our B747. It was fast.”
The partnership between TNT and WFP started in 2002 and so far, the logistics firm has contributed around $50 million worth of support to WFP’s efforts worldwide. TNT is on stand-by to transport more relief materials as determined by the WFP.