COOK sa Barangay: COOK Magazine celebrates 10th Holiday Bash by paying it forward to the community

LOOK: the Graphic-COOK webinar series

The idea actually started with the successful holding of a webinar on “Challenges in Food Security” by our sister publication, the BusinessMirror, in partnership with digital events organizer Fiera de Manila, Inc.

Held last Aug. 31, the webinar was moderated by the multi-awarded Agriculture reporting team of the BusinessMirror—associate editor Jennifer A. Ng and reporter Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas.

Guest speakers included Kristine Evangelista, assistant secretary, Department of Agriculture; Anthony Dizon, president of the Cold Chain Association of the Philippines; Dr. Mary Ann P. Sayoc, lead for public affairs of the East West Seed Group; and BusinessMirror columnist, UP Prof. Rene Ofreneo.

Livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube, the webinar had support from LED Billboard provider DOOH, as well as BusinessMirror’s sister media companies led by the Philippines Graphic, Pilipino Mirror, CNN, and radio station DWIZ.

SMARTER, WIDER

The BusinessMirror webinar gave us an idea: With the publishing sector currently in dire straits because of the COVID-19 pandemic, wouldn’t a webinar be a smarter way of reaching out to our readers and having our stories heard and appreciated by them?

A webinar, in tandem with the printed version of the integrated Graphic-COOK Magazine, would definitely reach a wider, more receptive audience. And so we came up with a Webinar Calendar for the last two months of 2020.

Designed to help home cooks in the online food business, this two-hour webinar will showcase recipes of the most-ordered dishes online.

Hosted by COOK Editor-in-Chief and Chef Dino Datu, COOK sa Barangay will give tips on food preparation, ways to better food handling by increasing the shelf life of food and food products.

Viewers will also be instructed on how to maintain cleanliness and sanitation in the kitchen, as well as approaches to attractive food presentation.

Three barangays in Makati form the main community participants in this very unique webinar.

NOV. 30 The state of Philippine Literature in the time of pandemic: How’s your Soul Quotient?   

Literature is often said to be food for the soul. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has deprived most of us of this cultural nourishment. Bookstores are barely open and most physical venues for literary presentations remain closed.  Even literary award-giving bodies like the Palanca Awards and the Nick Joaquin Literary Awards (NJLA) have been suspended.

The Philippines Graphic hurls a cry for literary expression with its webinar on “The state of Philippine Literature in the time of pandemic: How’s your Soul Quotient” on Nov. 30, the birth date of Andres Bonifacio, hero of the 1896 Philippine revolution.

Headlined by National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose, the webinar will have as reactors award-winning poet, fictionist, and UP professor Jose “Butch” Dalisay and Philippine Daily Inquirer Arts & Culture editor and noted journalist LitoZulueta.

DEC. 10 Right to life, right to a cure: Are we ready for the COVID-19 vaccine?

As humanity reels from the grossly debilitating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the top scientists in the richest, most industrialized countries of the world race to develop a vaccine.

But even as the reality of a COVID-19 vaccine seems realizable in the coming months, some of the wealthiest nations have allegedly negotiated their own deals with drug companies that are developing the vaccine. How would these negotiations affect relatively poorer nations like the Philippines?

When the world celebrates International Human Rights Day this Dec. 10, the Philippines Graphic will hold the webinar—“Right to life, right to a cure: Are we ready for the COVID-19 vaccine?”

Hosted by the Graphic’s Wellness editor Anne Ruth Dela Cruz, the webinar will invite as speakers the major stakeholders in the development of the COVID-19 vaccine. Discussions will center on the processes involved in vaccine development, update on COVID-19 candidate vaccines, DOH procurement and transport of vaccines once approved, and the need to improve vaccine confidence. —Psyche Roxas-Mendoza