Mingoy the NVC Food Shuttle

NVC has a bus named Mingoy. This handsome bus has an on-board kitchen directly in front of a serving window. With Mingoy, it is easy for us to drive to communities to serve piping hot meals on wheels. Over the years, we have prepared countless bowls of arroz caldo (rice porridge) and Mingo champorado (chocolate rice poridge with Mingo) right on board Mingoy. People would just walk right up to the window to be served.

Pre-pandemic, Mingoy traveled all over Negros. Thanks to the RORO network (system of  island-linking ferries big enough to accommodate buses), Mingoy could even visit the nearby islands of Panay and Cebu.

Pivoting and Adapting

Thanks to Mingoy, we were able to drive to so many places for community feeding. However, things changed because of Covid-19. Rsestrictions prevented us from going out as usual. For most of the lockdown, Mingoy did not leave the garage. But once things began opening up again, Mingoy hit the road to feed the hungry, this time as a roving community pantry.

We have been supplying community pantries with food contributions. Our fresh fruits and vegetables come from our Farmers of Hope. Our dried fish comes from Peter Project fishermen in nearby communities. We also supply Mingo, eggs, rice, bread and cheese spread. At first, our operations were limited to cities near our base of operations. But because of Mingoy, we can now drive farther out to bring supplies to  more communities. As long as restrictions do not bar us from traveling, Mingoy will be driving out to bring much-needed food to hungry families!