Powerbar-Making Contest! Best Organic Rice Powerbar Wins 1 Goat, 50 Manok Pinoy

The thing I love most about us Filipinos is our resilience in times of crisis and resourcefulness in wiggling out of the most difficult situation.

Yesterday, when I posted an article on the effort of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) to help Mindanao farmers sell their Black, Red and Brown Organic Rice, a follower of this page, Tohgee Aguilar submitted an amazing proposal.

“Gawin natin sir manny na puffed cereal rice healthy bar, with muscovado syrup, coco milk , dried fruit ( pili nuts, peanut, coco chip dried mushroom etc.) all organics,” Tohgee Aguilar said.

Indeed, why not?

Imagine a powerbar made out of Organic Black, Red or Brown Rice with Coco Syrup, Crushed Pili Nut or Peanuts, Organic Brown Eggs and other local materials?

This would not only be a hit in the sporting world conscious of healthy food but also a big help in creating a market for our farmers’ produce in these times of crisis.

This could create local income earning and job opportunities, as well.

A huge market that I am looking at is through the Government’s Feeding Program where the Organic Rice Powerbar could be offered to young schoolchildren, especially in areas with very high malnutrition rate.

While the benefits for the Organic Rice Farmers are not expected to be felt very soon, this could be the direction for the Mindanao Organic Rice Industry Development Program which aims to shield rice farmers from the adverse effects of the flooding of imported rice.

Riding on the idea of Tohgee Aguilar, I will now personally start a Powerbar-Making Challenge open to food techs, culinary and food nutrition students, housewives and food-making enthusiasts.

I am offering a prize of one pure Anglo Nubian young buck (male goat) worth P30,000 and 60 heads of my Manok Pinoy young breeders also worth P30,000 to whoever could prepare the best-tasting powerbar using Organic Brown, Black or Red Rice.

The prizes could be converted to cash if the winner wishes so.

MinDA will also provide additional assistance to the winner/winners of the challenge by linking them up with financing institutions to start the business of making the Powerbars and by introducing the product to the government’s feeding program.

Here are the simple guidelines:

1. Rice must be organic Black, Brown or Red;

2. Syrup must be organic with choices of coconut, sugarcane or corn;

3. The Powerbars must be packed, preferably Vacuum-Packed and delivered or sent to the Office of the Chairman, MinDA, The Ritz Hotel at Garden Oasis Porras St. cor. Villamor St. Bario Obrero Davao City, Poblacion, Davao City, Philippines, 8000.

4. All entries must be submitted by Aug. 28, 2021.

Winners will be judged by a panel of food and nutrition experts to be engaged by MinDA.

Thank you for the idea, Tohgee Aguilar.

#KungGustoMaramingParaan!

#GovernanceIsCommonSense!

(First photo showing a rice powerbar was downloaded from a public website while the two other photos show the Organic Brown, Black and Red Rice produced by Mindanao farmers.)