Gejay Logdat is a 28 years old, Costa Cruises Barboy and Owner of Jay’s HomeMade Longganisa. After he was repatriated back home to the Philippines, Logdat and his wife decided to open a business in Las Pinas and overcome the global crisis together. The family business is now selling and making delivery of a wide range of products, such as chicharon, suka, atchara, and sisig and homemade kimchi.

“The pandemic hit us all hard. But I overcame all these struggles because of my children, and my wife Laila. My constant support, and my inspiration. We will continue working hard for our family, and for our dreams.

I was in Costa Mediterranea for about 1year. I embarked June 2019 and supposed to sign off in March 2020, but the pandemic affected all cruise industry and the company decided to send us by cruise ship back to the Philippines so we travel 3 months from March 2020 to June 2020. When we arrived home, of course, the cruise industry, the whole Tourism Industry stopped because of COVID-19. So my wife and I decided to look for a new source of income, and we decided to sell our best-selling Homemade Longganisa."

"For me, the pandemic was a blessing in disguise. I love my job, the 12-hour shifts, the sleepless nights, it was all worth it because I’m doing it all for my family. But the hardest part was being away from my wife & my kids. I miss them every day. But now, we were given an opportunity to make use of our skills, made it as a source of income, and an opportunity to have more time to spend with my family.”

The challenges HomeMade Longganisa is facing is the transportation and meeting up with the customers but the online or Facebook helps it to boost the business. “The best part of managing my business is my homemade foods and many positive feedbacks from the customers,” says Logdat.

Here are some of the customer's comments"

Jay's Homemade Longganisa is available for orders at https://www.facebook.com/logdatgejay/