HISTORY
Mekeni Food Corporation began in 1986 as a home-based chicharon and tocino enterprise of husband and wife, Felix M. Garcia & Medicia L. Santos, both public school teachers from barrio Balubad, Porac, Pampanga. But the business spans over two decades earlier, when the couple, assisted by their five sons - Adrian, Pruds, Lito, Doods and Nards, ventured into backyard poultry and piggery to augment the meager family income. With a loan and some savings on hand, the family starting out with 100 chicken heads, a pen, and two piglets. The children
school kids then, also engaged in selling “ice candy’ and chicken eggs within the neighbor hood and at the nearby palengke (public market).
Everyone, especially the boys, had a hand in the business - from cleaning the pen, mixing the feeds to gathering the eggs. At daybreak the family would be up doing the chores and the boys would get ready to deliver the eggs to the market right before going to school. This would become a daily family routine of hard work and responsibility from the late 60s through the late 70s.
During this period, the backyard enterprise started to flourish, becoming a full-blown family business that allowed the Garcia’s to slaughter pigs regularly during weekends. Years later, the livestock venture expanded into chicharon and tocino making, ushering the birth of Mekeni Meat Products.
Growing up years
The meat business was a great help for Felix and Meding to send their five boys to college, without which they would not have been able to do so had they relied on their low government salaries alone. The couple’s perseverance, hard work, and commitment to God and family soon paid off, enabling eldest son Adrian to finish an agriculture course, major in animal science, in 1977. He later worked in the United States for a meat processing business. Pruds and Lito, who both finished accounting, cum laude, turned out to become certified public accountants. Pruds got a good-paying job as audit manager of Saudi Arabia’s largest cement company, while Lito also worked in the Middle East kingdom for three years as cost accountant. Doods and Nards soon earned college degrees for themselves. Both finished business administration, major in accounting and marketing, respectively.
Rising from the ashes of PinatuboThe 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption adversely affected the family business and wrought damage to many homes in Porac, Pampanga. Leaving many displaced families to seek temporary shelter in public school buildings. One of these evacuation centers was the elementary school where Felix taught, located in front of his house.
Having pity after seeing the helplessness of the evacuees, he was struck with the burden of giving them jobs or a more sustainable form of livelihood, not rely on government dole out. He summoned his sons, three of whom were abroad at that time and enjoying a life of comfort – with stable, high paying jobs – to get back home and help revive, not only their slumped meat business, but also to rehabilitate their lahar-ravaged community.
The first thing that the Garcias did when they returned home was to hire 30 qualified people from Balubad to help sustain the meat venture. They made sure that each worker was treated like a member of the family, giving them place and significant role to play in the company.
Dedication, teamwork, and drive for excellence were the underlying principles that governed the processing of their meat products. They toiled wholeheartedly to earn their share of the market.
Aiming to Become World Class
Ten years after reviving the business, Mekeni Food Corporation got a shot in the arm when it secured a soft term loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines. The company was able to develop a property in the heart of Balubad where it put up its modern meat processing plant.
Today, MFC flourishes with its multi-million peso, job creating achievements, not only for its owners, but for the whole community, as well. It employs close to 1,000 workers, 70 percent of whom hail from the barrio.
The company’s industrial unit stands out as a Class “AAA” meat processing plant, one of the few factories north of Manila, given such merit. Since it began operation early in 2003, the plant garnered numerous government awards and recognitions for its adherence to food safety and environmental protection programs.
From a market confined only to Central Luzon, its distribution network has widened, spanning from Northern Luzon to Metro Manila, and down to the Bicol region. Recently, it had established a foothold in the Visayas and Mindanao. Hopefully, it will penetrate the foreign market.
The accreditation of its established food safety programs, such as the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) by the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS), its accreditation as a “AAA” Meat Processing plant by the same agency, and the recognition it was given as the Best Meat Processing Plant (National Level) for three consecutive years (CY 2004, CY 2005, CY 2006) are affirmations of MFC’s goal to be a world class. Appreciative and motivated by these, the company sought for higher levels of standard that would further assure quality and safety of the products it serves its customers.
In CY 2006, MFC integrated the requirements of the ISO 22000:2005 standard (Food Safety Management System) in its operations. It successfully satisfied the requirements for ISO 22000 certification during the audit for the same facilitated by TUV-SUD last September 27 to 29, 2006. In the process, it earned the following reputation:
- The first ISO 22000 certified Meat Processing Plant in Asia,
- The first ISO 22000 certified Food Processing Plant in the Philippines,
- The second ISO 22000 certified Meat Processing Plant in the world.
Again, last October 18, 2007, the NMIS awarded MFC the “AAA” Meat Processing Plant Grand Slam Award for having maintained and surpassed its past years’ performance rating on its Food Safety Program.
By all standards, the company has become world-class, a source of pride, not only for Pampanga, but for the entire nation as well. The feat has been attainable through the Garcia family’s long years of hard work, discipline, strong determination, and adherence to strong family values.