Marangal na Kabuhayan

The Department of Trade and Industry and SM Foundation together with 18 urban poor groups launched yesterday the "Marangal na Kabuhayan" program through the signing of a Covenant of Understanding (COU) and the turnover of raw materials for soap production,
Under the "Marangal na Kabuhayan" program, the DTI will help urban poor groups develop and produce various consumer goods which will be bought and sold through SM, the country's largest
chain of shopping malls,
"Through the 'Marangal na Kabuhayan' program, the DTI in partnership with SM Foundation will help urban poor groups to start up their own micro-enterprises and provide them with all the inputs
necessary for them to become mature enterprises," Secretary Mar Roxas said.
"This program will not only provide livelihood in the immediate term, but we also envision that this will become profitable businesses that will employ thousands of people. In this way, we see 'Marangalna Kabuhayan' contributing to the government's
efforts in poverty alleviation," said Roxas.
DTI's Cottage Industry Technology Center (CITC) will provide resources and training to 18 urban poor groups to enable them to produce laundry soaps and other detergents.
SM Foundation, through the DTI, will buy and market these laundry soaps and detergents under the brand 'Marangal na Kabuhayan' in all of 18 of SM shopping malls nationwide.
"We thank SM for partnering with us in this project for providing retail space that will give small businesses exposure to the market. We hope that other major retailers will follow suit and help small businesses grow," Roxas said.
Profits from the sale of these detergents will go directly to the urban poor groups and provide additional income for their members.

Pinoy Pandesal

The Pinoy Pandesal project of the Department of Trade and Industry goes full swing nationwide, with more bakeshops expressing their support to the project.
Already, the Department of Trade and Industry, Purefoods-San Miguel Corporation, and the Federation of Bakers Association of the Philippines have jointly conducted seminar training workshops to over 1,000 participants composed of bakers, bakery owners, and would-be bakers.
Pinoy Pandesal complies with the Food Fortification Law as it uses Purefoods-San Miguel's Harina De Pandesal containing Vitamin A. Moreover, this special flour mix is free from
bromate -a carcinogenic chemical used to age flour -and instead uses a harmless substitute called 'Improver'.
The Pinoy Pandesal project was a result of a series of meetings between DTI and the manufacturers and suppliers to address issues affecting the bakery industry such as volatile flour prices.
Pinoy Pandesal's objectives include, among other things, providing bakers with training seminars in the use of Harina De Pandesal (which is now being marketed as Pambansang Harina)-a special flour mix developed by Purefoods-San Miguel Corporation exclusively for making pandesal.
Over 526 bakeries all over the country are now selling Pinoy Pandesal and the number steadily grows with two of the largest bakery chains in the Philippines, French Baker and Julie's
Bakeshop signing up to support the Pinoy Pandesal project.
Julie's Bakeshop, with 330 branches nationwide, already began selling Pinoy Pandesal, undertook an ad campaign to boost the
consumption of Pinoy Pandesal and claimed for itself the title 'Bakery ng Bayang Pilipino.' Pan De Manila has also signified interest to join the project.
Senator Roxas said "We also would like to develop the small and medium scale entrepreneurs nationwide and broaden the market base of Pinoy Pandesal so that more Filipino households can
benefit from these cheaper but of good quality Pinoy fare."

How to Make Kiping?

The celebtion of the feast San Isidro or pahiyas in Lucban is incomplete without the kiping as decoration. Its presence
signifies the beauty and importance of rice in the life of farmers.
According to Aling Vicenta, the making of kiping begins
with the selection of fresh leaves as molds. The kinds of leaves
include kabal, talisay, kakaw (cocoa), antipolo and banana (saba).
These leaves should be: 1) mature so that they can be used
three times; 2) be of the same sizes; 3) not render any unusual
taste. To make the fresh leaves of uniform size,a pair of scissors
comes handy to cut off the excess width of a leaf. Once the
leaves of the same variety have been selected,these are wiped
clean to avoid the production of dirty-looking kiping.
The selection of rice and the preparation of rice paste are
important steps. Rice should be laon (should have been stocked
for a year) to prevent unnecessary cracking of the rice wafer.
Experience dictates that C-64 variety can be used for as long as
the palay has been stocked for a year.

The preparation of the rice paste includes:
1) soaking of the rice for two hours before taking
it to the grinding station;
2) grinding of the rice with water just
a little over the volume of rice;
3) mixing the ground rice with three packets
of food color and 1 /2 teaspoon of rock salt (for
every ganta of rice). People believe that in mixing the paste,
silence should be observed, nobody should ask questions:
otherwise. the batch of kiping will have cracks. Then the paste
will be spread on individual leaves. Depending on the size of
the improvised steamer (usually it is made of bamboo slats that
sit on a big frying pan with boiling water, decaying banana
suckers serving to contain the steam and matching lid) which
sometimes can hold as many as three to four leaves,steaming of
the leaves covered with paste lasts 30 minutes.

After steaming, the following steps are executed:
* Dry the steamed kiping under the shade until ready for
peeling off.
* Peel off thc kiping individually.
* Place kiping one on top of the other.
* Place weight on top to compress for 1/2 day.
* Separate the kiping one by one.
* Dry the kiping one on top of the other.
* Place weight on top to compress for 1/2 day.
* Store the kiping (hang them or place in a clean box).