Oxfam and Stephanie Zubiri's Food Heroes 2013 Calendar

 Manila’s famous chefs, foodies, bloggers recently graced the launch of Steph Zubiri and Oxfam’s “Grow. Cook. Eat. Food Heroes 2013 Calendar” at Milkyway Bar and Restaurant in Makati City. The launch coincides with the celebration of the International Rural Women’s Day on October 15.

The Food Heroes calendar is a brainchild of Zubiri in cooperation with Oxfam in the Philippines. For each month, a rural woman is featured. On the reverse page of the calendar, renowned Filipino chefs led by Stephanie Zubiri shared their own recipes out of these rural women’s produce. Chef Jay Gamboa shared his Organic Puffed Brown Rice for February. Steph Zubiri shared her Onion Jam and her Squash, Eggplant and Green Bean Lemongrass Curry recipes for the months of March and June, Chef Myrna Segismundo’s poached matangbaka (big-eye scad) in olive oil with garlic and lemon is featured in April.

For the month of May, Chef Fern Aracama made use of onion to cook Stuffed Onion. Chef Claude Tayag recreated the traditional Kapampangan’s version of paella, Bringhe for July. Chef Jackie Laudico shared her Sweet Potato Tart for August while her husband Rolando did an organic version of the Filipino dish kare-kare for the month of December. Chef Mickey Fenix Macabenta made use of seaweed in her Savory Seaweed Salad (September) while Chef Him Uy de Baron shared his Eggplant Salad (October).

“The Food Heroes Calendar is our way of thanking women farmers and fishers who tirelessly toil everyday for everyone to have something to cook and eat. We encourage everyone to support this project by buying this calendar and give them as Christmas gifts to their families and friends,” says Zubiri during the launch.

“When Steph (Zubiri) first broached the idea to Oxfam about this Food Heroes Calendar, we in Oxfam got really excited because this project is something innovative and creative and is a fitting tribute to the unheralded works of Filipino rural women,” says Kala Pulido-Constantino, Oxfam’s Advocacy, Campaigns and Communications Programme Coordinator.

The Food Heroes Calendar is part of Oxfam’s GROW campaign, a campaign for better ways to grow, manage and consume food. It is a campaign for the billions of us who eat food and over a billion of men and women who grow it, to share solutions for a more hopeful future in which everyone always has enough to eat. To realize the vision of a future where everyone always has enough to eat, we have to change the way we grow. We must make practical positive changes in how we produce, consume, share and manage food and other resources.