Rising above a personal tragedy that claimed the life of their son Franco in 2009, restaurateurs Mon and Monica Eugenio channeled their grief later that same year to form Franco’s Friends. Since then, the informal charity group springs into action to identify and help feed those in need, including the country’s front liners, every time there’s a crisis.
By ALEX Y. VERGARA
Restaurateurs Mon and Monica Eugenio know exactly how it is to feel helpless and nearly abandoned. To watch in horror and frustration as the world, indifferent to their cries for help, passed them by 11 years ago as their three-year-old son Franco and his younger cousin Anton were gasping for breath, as they were tossed into the sea, soon after a boating accident near Verde Island off Batangas. Before the day was over, they lost both boys, including Anton’s nanny.
“At that moment, we were incredulous that in our time of need, other boats just passed us by and didn’t help,” says Mon, who owns and manages several restaurants with Monica, an accomplished chef, such as Myron’s, Flying Pan and Miguelito’s, through email.
But instead of wallowing in bitterness, the couple channeled their sad, unforgettable experience into something positive and life-affirming by doing their share to help the hungry and displaced when considerable areas of Metro Manila were submerged in the wake of typhoon “Ondoy” later that same year.
“Seeing the helplessness of those people affected then, we felt a strong urge to help,” says Mon.
With donations from friends and family, as well as strangers who later chipped in, the Eugenios and their staff were able to cook buckets-full of lugaw (congee) and baked bread, which they sent to hungry and homeless families in Marikina. This they did for a good number of days until they were able to provide meals for close to 20,000 people.
That initial foray into charity work led to the birth of Franco’s Friends, a group led by the couple and composed mostly of their friends and relatives who band together informally every time a major disaster hits the Philippines. And what could be a bigger, deadlier one than the current COVID-19 pandemic raging within and outside the country?
“Franco’s Friends is just a group of people my wife and I call for help. It’s our personal advocacy, an ad hoc group that responds to emergencies,” says Mon.
In the true spirit of bayanihan, the main idea that continues to animate and bind together this loose grouping of individuals and organizations is their common desire to help “in our own little way,” Mon adds.
“We rely on our limited resources and donations, both in cash and in kind, to help sustain it. Even our own staff contribute whatever they can to the effort. We don’t earn from any of these. All monetary donations are used to pay for raw materials, ingredients, payroll and utilities.”
That was why when the government initially announced a lockdown on March 12, Mon and the rest of Franco’s Friends knew already what to do. After having sprung into action since 2009, the “framework,” he says, “was instant.”
Early the next day, Mon and his collaborators began asking for donations from people they know. Even before action kicked into high gear, they have already identified their main target or beneficiary: food for Metro Manila’s frontline healthcare workers. At the same time, Mon and his staff started prepping their kitchen at Myron’s.
“It wasn’t difficult to ask for help,” he continues. “Our response to disasters were quite familiar to people who know us. On March 14th, we started distributing 50 meals each to five hospitals, for a total of 250 meals.”
Doing charity work can be quite infectious, too. If an invisible and deadly virus continues to spread like wildfire all over the country, so have been people’s kindness and readiness to lend a helping hand. Once they found out, it didn’t take long for more people, particularly fellow restaurateurs, to express their desire to join Franco’s Friends’ efforts.
Barrio Fiesta Greenhills, through Mon and Monica’s choral friends Jay and Aui Tamayo, did their own fundraising and started preparing meals to be distributed in central Metro Manila. For a time, Gourmet Gypsy of Chef Waya Araos-Wijangco also joined by serving hospitals in the east. The restaurant has since been replaced by BOA Asian Flavors.
“We take care of (hospitals) in the south since our operations are out of Makati,” adds Mon.
He also cites his “diehard” friends from the University of the Philippines for helping them initially set up the emergency outreach program. Franco’s Friends, says Mon, is one of “many parts of the same body,” which are now addressing a host of other concerns like feeding the military and police at checkpoints and securing much-needed PPE and various other life-saving supplies and equipment for a number of hospitals. (Please google Salamat PH Healthcare Heroes for more details.)
“It’s touching to hear people call us and ask how they can help,” says Mon. “They’re inspired to do what they can in their own ways.”
Jay and Aui of Barrio Fiesta Greenhills, for instance, did their own fundraising with their friends and family. Their efforts have produced almost 3,000 meals since.
Farmers from Ifugao also decided to give their vegetable produce for front liners. Mon’s friend Maricris San Diego from Alabang set up her own group to help feed front liners at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine and other nearby hospitals.
Meanwhile, Dr. John Zamora called his medical representatives from Unilab, and facilitated the donation of vitamins for front liners. Boxes from Messy Bessy and other companies enabled Franco’s Friends to transport meals with ease. For his part, Dan Matutina, noted graphic artist, designed Franco’s Friends logo for free.
“The logo has given us an identity for our movement,” says Mon. “We all love it!”
Like any seasoned and resourceful restaurateur, Mon, with the help of lawyer-friend Stefano Lim, also designed a system to help prevent wastage. They have done this mainly by matching their limited supplies with demand. To avoid, for instance, duplication of donations coming from other groups, Stefano and fellow volunteers from Hirayang Kabataan call hospitals to ensure that they have an actual need for food on that day.
“And we do this daily,” Mon declares.
The effort isn’t without its challenges. Mon shares a few. Wastage, for instance, becomes an unwelcome by-product in the rush by different groups to help. That’s why it’s important to rely on dependable leadership to coordinate all efforts.
It’s important also to coordinate with designated coordinators in each of the beneficiary hospitals. This minimizes the problem of duplication and dealing with multiple requests coming from various residents and individual departments from the same hospital.
Like what everyone has been saying since the start, the COVID-19 pandemic is a much more different and bigger crisis from anything the world, including the Philippines, has encountered in living memory. Because COVID-19 is highly contagious, Mon and the rest of Franco’s Friends need to coordinate almost everything from home.
“We don’t want to put anyone unnecessarily in harm’s way,” he says. “That’s why we can only give to hospitals that are willing to pick up.”
In the same way that at-risk doctors and nurses are appealing to people to stay at home to slow down the disease’s spread, save lives and lessen pressure on our front liners, Franco’s Friends’ kitchen personnel, who risk their lives to go to work to provide food for those in the trenches, have also one request from the public: don’t waste food.
It would be the height of disrespect to throw away even a single packed meal they so lovingly prepared. In short, each set meal, therefore, should go to feed someone who’s hungry.
“I also need to be faithful to the trust given to us by our donors,” Mon reasons.
It can’t be helped that people directly in charge of preparing food are also fearful for their lives. That’s where Mon and Monica come in, reinforcing the idea and inspiring everyone involved that what they’re doing is a direct service to the country by nurturing its front liners.
“Being away from family and uncertain of the world beyond make it a task that requires great personal sacrifice,” says Mon. “But we need to take care of those (front liners) who take care of us.”
Even for the born optimist, it’s difficult to deal with such dire circumstances, whose consequences have yet to fully unfold, without worrying. At the end of the day, Mon and the rest of Franco’s Friends can only rely on faith.
For donations to Franco’s Friends, please refer to information found in the image below.
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