Area Immigrants Sending Food to Home Countries

Officials at Forex, a top Filipino shipping company based in Alexandria, began noticing more rice in balikbayan boxes earlier this year. So the company launched a special offer to "demonstrate our social conscience," said founder Jaime Cariño: For a limited time, immigrants in the United States can ship 25-pound bags of rice -- no need for a box -- for $15 each. About 1,200 bags have been sent each month for the past three months, the company said.

If sending rice to the Philippines rings of carrying coals to Newcastle, some Filipino community groups agree. The National Federation of Filipino American Associations is encouraging immigrants to send money instead, noting that although rice is expensive in the Philippines, it is available.

Besides, rice prices have shot up stateside. A 25-pound bag of the Thai jasmine rice preferred by Filipinos hovers around $20, up from about $12.75 six weeks ago. And shipments take at least a month to arrive (although when they do, the deliveryman snaps a photo of the happy recipient with the box and mails it to the sender).

But to those sending rice, it makes a certain sort of inevitable sense. The Philippines is the world's biggest importer of rice, which accompanies three meals a day and sometimes serves as a snack. Rice is "like a religion," Manila Oriental shopper Rudy Mendoza said. Nearby hung a poster pitching the Forex special, which exhorted shoppers in Tagalog to "Help the Rice Crisis in the Philippines."

Most customers deem it more economical to send rice in balikbayan boxes, said the store's food service manager, Christie Zerrudo. She is preparing a box of clothes and canned goods, anchored by two 25-pound bags of jasmine rice. It will be a surprise for her brother, who operates a tricycle-for-hire in Manila and who recently told her the rice available there tastes bad.

"It just breaks my heart. I said, 'Don't eat it,' " Zerrudo said. "I told them, 'I'll send you a bag of rice.' "

Maila Mabolo, a chef who lives in Suitland, has sent two installments of rice to Manila. Her brothers complained that government-subsidized rice, which is rationed and offered at about 20 cents per pound, gives them stomachaches. Better-quality commercial rice goes for more than twice as much.

"My brothers are going to the line for three hours, and they will get only three kilos," said Mabolo, 37, as she piled boxes of mangoes into her trunk outside Manila Oriental. "I'm not going to let my brothers struggle, doing like that."

For Arnedo Valera, a Fairfax lawyer and executive director of the Migrant Heritage Commission, sending rice is "a political statement." If Filipino customs agents see it, he explained, they will have yet more evidence that Filipino expatriates, who sent home nearly $15 billion in 2006, are keeping the Philippines humming.

After a visit to Haiti in December, when prices were on the rise, Remy Darisme stopped shipping a monthly box of food to Haiti.

He upgraded to a barrel, which he fills with oil, powdered milk and cereal purchased at Costco. He sends it through Esther Express, which also offers a cargo shipping service. In April, as food riots broke out, he dispatched two barrels to friends and relatives.

"We are here. We've got health. We can work," said Darisme, 50, a Silver Spring taxi driver. "We've got to think about them. "