Eatsplore with UP BroadGuild

by Riley dela Cruz

Thumbnail by Lia Reblora

As the sun began to set, the Freedom of Information garden was packed with party food, jubilant smiles, and a loud Maskom crowd eager to be fed.

With its theme “TUKLAS,” the UP Broadcasters’ Guild (UP BroadGuild) kicked off its anniversary week with the sought-after Ice Cream Day (ICD), and Grand Pakain (GPak) entitled, “Eatsplorasyon” on January 30. The organization recently celebrated its 20th anniversary from January 30 until February 2.

Nina Camacho, one of the project heads, stated that for ICD, instead of having a stationary ice cream cart––the norm during previous ICD’s––, they made use of a mobile one. The team was then able to hand out ice cream cones to the members of the UP community in Plaridel Hall, Palma Hall, and Vinzons Hall.

UP students enjoy free ice cream in this year's mobile ICD

Project head Glee Rosales also shared that they wanted to innovate BroadGuild’s GPak this year by highlighting their chosen advocacy, “showcasing local Filipino food, and practicing healthy eating, and sustainable health habits.”

Rosales said they also collaborated with the exhibit team; since the exhibit is a miniature city depicting the land-grabbing issues of the urban poor communities, the “Eatsplorasyon” team wrote and connected urban poor stories per food item. She said they wanted to create a different impression on common Filipino party food: kanin, lumpiang shanghai, pancit bihon, barbeque, and kakanin. “[W]e made a story out of these foods, so parang changing perspective lang on things we take for granted,” Rosales said.

The project heads were happy at the events’ turnout. More attendees showed up than what they expected. The organization’s members, as Rosales put it, “[S]obrang responsive nila, tapos parang na-feel kong one big team kami kanina.” Camacho felt that they “weren’t alone in making the event possible. Like, we had our org mates, and the help from other people, to give us that encouragement and support.”

In the end, Camacho and Rosales suggested finding better ways to integrate the message that they want to forward. With the team’s innovation, expect the next BroadGuild GPak’s to be fun-filled and relevant, always, to the people!