A Movement of Community Pantries

A Movement of Community Pantries

By Jonathan B. Canchela

It is not surprising that community pantries have become widespread during pandemic. Many people have lost their jobs and have been struggling with lockdowns and worried about where to get their next food on the table. We do not want to see people dying from hunger while others were dying due to this COVID-19 virus.

In Toronto, for example, the Toronto Little Free Pantries Project, which started in 2017, has increased since last year as more and more people look for some help to feed themselves during these trying times. The objective of the project is “to address food insecurity on a local level and ultimately make our city a better place.” And, it operates on a simple slogan: “Give what you can, take what you need.”

The economic fallout of this pandemic has been devastating to all of us. If people in areas like Toronto, where big foodbanks exist, are experiencing scarcity of food resources, how much more miserable are those who live in pandemic hard-hit countries like the Philippines?

(Photos: Sipocot Communituy Pantry)

According to a survey by Social Weather Stations, more than one in five Filipinos did not have enough food to eat at some point in 2020. Based on official government data, food inflation reached 6.2 percent in March 2021. In the same month last year, food inflation was only at 2.6 percent.

Given the circumstances brought about by the pandemic crisis, many Filipinos have struggled during lockdowns, especially those family breadwinners who lost their jobs. And besieged with lack of support from the government, some people forced themselves to go outside, risking their lives, to look for work in order to survive.

These social and economic realities as backdrop, Ana Patricia Non started the first community pantry on Maginhawa Street, Quezon City. Setting up a wooden pantry on the street with some canned goods and vegetables attracted people each day and more people each week. With her kindness, Non inspired a mass movement of community pantries based on a simple principle: “Magbigay ayon sa kakayahan, kumuha batay sa pangangailangan.” (Give what you can, take what you need.)

But some government officials started downplaying the community pantry initiatives even to the extent of calling the organizers as communist sympathizers, alluding to the pantry’s slogan that was derived from Karl Marx’s idea: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” What the paranoid government officials did not understand was even if you believe in Marx’s ideas and call yourself a Marxist, it does not automatically make you are a communist. It only means that you read or have the idea of his work – Critique of the Gotha Program – to say the least.

Nonetheless, the red-tagging did not deter the organizers and volunteers from continuing what they have started. More donors came in to give what they could, and more and more people lined up to take some food according to their needs for a day.

To date, thousands of community pantries have been operating across the country. A case in point is a community pantry in my hometown, Sipocot, Camarines Sur. Inspired by Maginhawa Community Pantry initiative, a group of volunteers set up the first community pantry over the weekend of April 17.

According to Mariane Pesigan, one of the organizers, they started the pantry because they know well that people need some kind of help, and some generous people started making pledges of donations. There are six pantries now in different locations or barangays.

“A day after opening the pantry, dinumog ng tao ‘yong pantry,” Pesigan said. “We took it as an opportunity to remind our kahimanwa about the values of giving and sharing. We also reminded them to maintain physical distancing, wear masks, and magkaroon ng malasakit sa kapwa, lalo na sa mga nakapila sa likuran.”

The organizers and volunteers – Berrey Warren, Jaira Linatoc, and Mildred Nieva, to name a few – started to see better pantry operations after few days. Ordinary folks began coming not only to take some food but also to donate some goods for the community.

Asked if they are afraid of being red-tagged just like what happened to other community pantry volunteers, Pesigan said: “Hindi natin kailangan matakot kasi wala naman tayong ginagawang masama. But we do remind ourselves and other volunteers about our rights and the steps that we have to do in case something like that happens.”

From one community pantry to multitude of pantries, this phenomenon is becoming a mass movement. It’s a movement of keeping and helping each other. It’s a movement of mutual aid, not a charity. It’s a movement anchored on a simple principle: “Give what you can, take what you need.” In essence, it’s a movement of loving and caring for fellow human beings – your kapwa tao – by helping them survive during this pandemic crisis.