What began in a small kitchen in Valenzuela more than five decades ago has grown into a story of Filipino families helping other Filipino families build better lives.
In 1975, nutritionist-dietitian Corazon Dayro Ong started preparing her own recipes for skinless longganisa and tocino, initially sharing them with relatives and neighbors. With her husband, Jose Ong, she eventually turned the modest home venture into a growing Filipino food business.
But the deeper legacy of that journey can be seen beyond the products that found their way onto family tables. Over the years, CDO has expanded its community work to include nutrition, livelihood, education, environmental protection and disaster assistance.
Through the CDO Odyssey Foundation Inc. (OFI), the company’s social responsibility arm, these efforts are organized around four advocacies: Kalusugan for health and wellness, Kabuhayan for livelihood, Karunungan for education and Kalikasan for the environment. Its Gabay Kaagapay program provides additional assistance to communities affected by disasters and emergencies.
One of the foundation’s health initiatives focuses on children facing malnutrition. Community-based feeding programs provide children with the Department of Science and Technology-developed Enhanced Nutribun, called VitaBun under the program, alongside health monitoring and learning sessions for parents.
In Valenzuela, the foundation also supports KuSciNanay community kitchens, where mothers help prepare meals for beneficiaries while learning practical ways to provide nutritious food for their own families.
For some families, however, a lasting change begins not with a meal but with an opportunity to earn.
Through CDO Kasosyo sa Negosyo, beneficiaries receive livelihood packages that may include food carts, equipment, kitchen tools and products, as well as training in financial literacy, food safety and hygiene. The goal is to help aspiring entrepreneurs build small businesses that can provide an income for their families.
The initiative echoes the company’s own beginnings: a family starting small and turning a simple idea into a source of livelihood.
Its community work has also extended to environmental protection. In partnership with the University of the Philippines Los Baños College of Forestry and Natural Resources, the foundation has committed to reforesting and caring for five hectares in the Sierra Madre.
The effort reflects a broader understanding of community development—one that includes not only helping families today but also protecting the natural resources future generations will depend on.
“Through OFI, we work with local communities, government agencies and partner organizations to understand what is needed and find ways where we can make a meaningful and lasting contribution,” said Patricia Marcelo-Magbanua, head of corporate affairs and communications and executive director of CDO Odyssey Foundation Inc., explains to FrontpagePH.com.
The company has continued to expand its food business over the decades, responding to changing tastes and the evolving needs of Filipino households. Yet its origin remains a simple one: a couple working from home, preparing food for people they knew.
More than 50 years later, that beginning has taken on a wider meaning.
The story is no longer just about how a home kitchen grew into a national business. It is also about how success can create opportunities to give back—to help a child receive a nutritious meal, help a parent start a livelihood, support communities recovering from disasters and contribute to the restoration of forests.
For the families reached by these programs, those efforts represent something more personal than corporate growth: a chance to build healthier, more secure and more hopeful futures.
And as the company enters its next chapter, its journey suggests that sometimes the most enduring stories of success begin with something as ordinary—and as powerful—as one family trying to make a difference.
(MAIN PHOTO: CDO’s facilities are among the pioneers in green manufacturing. They are powered by one of the largest solar rooftops in the country and partially runs on renewable energy, significantly reducing the company’s carbon footprint)