There was a time when the women in an impoverished barangay in Southern Tagalog just stayed home, chitchatting the day away while waiting for their husbands, most working in banana plantations, to return home. For similar communities where banana is the primary source of income, the farmers are “locked in a vicious cycle of poverty. The farmers get up early in the morning to work in the banana plantation, and go home late at night. But for a whole day's work harvesting bananas and its leaves, they earn just enough for the basic necessities of life,” says Rommel T. Juan, Binalot Fiesta Foods Inc. (BFFI) president.

But with a corporate social responsibility (CSR) effort dubbed DAHON (for Dangal At Hanapbuhay Para sa Nayon), BFFI has changed this practice by “providing a livelihood program to help (the banana farmers and their families) get more value from the lowly banana leaf.”

Superficially, the Filipino food chain’s program is self-serving. BFFI, which was started in 1996 as a small food delivery company, has grown into a full-fledged fastfood restaurant chain due to its leaf-wrapped offerings. The company’s name was, of course, culled from the Filipino term binalot that means wrapped, imitating the way food was served in the olden days when banana leaves were used to lock in the freshness of food. With this, DAHON provides the very banana leaves BFFI uses to wrap its fares.

More than getting a steady supply of freshly-cut and cost-efficient banana leaves, however, the banana farmers and their families are provided “the means to continuously improve their lives,” Juan says.

Through DAHON, 28 families in Southern Tagalog have been organized to be trained to cut banana leaves according to various specifications. By linking directly with the farmers, BFFI, which buys the leaves per piece, provides them a ready market for their produce.

"The women in the community now feel especially empowered as they earn about P200 a day from their cutting activities. They no longer just hang around at home or playing cards," Juan says.

The program, however, has loftier goals, aiming to “develop the community itself by providing other livelihood programs to help them turn a new leaf that has less dependence on the banana leaf itself,” Juan says. Thus far, DAHON has helped in renovating the day-care center and the community chapel in the barangay; helped in finding ways to diversify the use of banana, such as making flavored banana chips, and finding a bigger market for the puso ng saging, a vegetarian delight; as well as launching of Tilapia sa Bakuran, a sub-project aiming to help community
members set up a small tilapia farm in their backyards, with BFFI also buying their harvests so the market is ensured.

 According to Juan, by helping in the community's improvement and livelihood, DAHON has “touched many lives, (and) nowhere is this more evident than with the elderly members of the community. By integrating the elderly into the production process, DAHON has given these people a new purpose in life. Before, some of the elders felt that they were a burden to their families. However, by giving them employment, the elders felt productive and reinvigorated (just as) the women employed were given the chance to supplement their family's incomes.”

BFFI has already persuaded two other fastfood restaurants that also make use of banana leaves to join its CSR program. “The concept is simple: use the banana leaf as the rallying point for a start-up program and then later, evolve into other projects to help develop the community, provide alternate sources of livelihood and finally, help turn a new leaf,” Juan says, stressing that the success of DAHON shows that a company does not have to be big in order to help. “In fact, any company or individual, regardless of whether it is rich or poor, big or small, can help make a difference and improve the lives of people. All one needs is a big heart, the willingness to help, and the commitment to help turn a new leaf. DAHON shows that a CSR program can be win-win for all stakeholders."