It takes a community …

Lifestyle guru Anna Sobrepeña sets up a community pantry outside her village gate; the Intramuros Administration sets up its own community pantry; Amparo Community Pantry in Caloocan comes to life through efforts led by Leni Velasco of the Dakila Philippine Collective for Modern Heroism; Fr. Regie Malicdem, rector of Manila Cathedral joins the community pantry effort of Intramuros, adding spiritual items like the 500 Years of Christianity Mission Cross. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

It started with one little bamboo cart in Maginhawa in Quezon City with just a few canned goods and a few bags of rice. Today there are hundreds of community pantries all over the country, from the Cordilleras to Zamboanga, feeding hundreds of thousands.

Here are some lessons learned:

One person can make a difference

On April 14, Ana Patricia Non, a 26-year old microbusiness owner, put a little cart with a few canned goods, a few bags of rice, vegetables and a few face masks on the street with a handwritten sign attached to a post, “Magbigay ayon sa kakayahan. Kumuha batay sa pangangailangan.” (Give what you can, take what you need.)

A few days later, she posted on Facebook, “Hangga’t walang #SapatNaAyuda, tayo-tayo na muna ito!” (Until there is enough government aid, we help ourselves and others.)

Before long, there were people lining up. And the line just kept getting longer and longer, stretching over three blocks until another community pantry was set up a few streets away. And then in other villages. And then in other cities. And then in other provinces.

Now, there are over 350 community pantries across the nation, with help from different parts of the world and with no less than the Washington Post noting the phenomenon.

Kindness is contagious and has no class distinctions

I was especially moved by the Facebook post of Zena Bernardo Bernardo that showed a photo of the vendors of the vegetable market near the Maginhawa community pantry.

She noted: “This is just so beautiful. These are the vegetable vendors [who] were heavily affected by the lockdown. They are among the many nameless, faceless heroes [who] rocked our country to unite for kindness. As Patreng [Non] was looking for a place to park her bamboo cart, she met them. And they just stepped up to help replenish the cart, carry the goods donated, repack, and as the need [arose], to help distribute. It is Day 8 and their lives, especially their hearts, have been changed forever. I hope someone is documenting this beautiful, beautiful story of love, kindness, compassion, bravery… and friendship.”

Later, no less than the German Ambassador visited and donated to the Maginhawa community pantry.

An ice cream vendor (sorbetero) parked his ice cream cart beside the pantry and just started giving away ice cream.

In another location, a taho vendor set up his own “pantry,” giving away free taho (soy pudding).

Rich communities also set up community pantries outside their village gates.

Elsewhere, donations started pouring in, with one raising over $10,000 just so the community pantry would never go empty.

Rich or poor, everyone had something to give and the kindness continues.

Some people will really try to bring a good thing down.

The poor girl, Non, who never imagined her little cart would inspire similar efforts nationwide, became the target of “Red-tagging,” unjustly accused of links to communist rebel groups and harassed by personnel from the Quezon City Police District, who alleged on their official page that the community pantry is a propaganda of the Communist Party of the Philippines. The spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac), Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., even likened Non’s community pantry to Satan’s apple.

He then went on to clarify, “I’m referring to the big organization that may be at the back of all these. That’s what we were saying, that’s what I was saying.”

What inconceivable observations.

You have a high society lifestyle editor setting up a community pantry outside her village; the Intramuros Administration setting up one near the Manila Cathedral; you have the BF Homes Fire Substation duty personnel under the supervision of the City Fire Director and assisted by the Philippine National Police and Barangay Officials of Barangay 169, Deparo Caloocan City; you have Baguio vendors sending vegetables to Manila at cost for those who would like to donate. These are all personal initiatives.

So where do these Red-tagging freaks find the wherewithal to think there is a big organization behind this and utter such venomous words comparing an innocent girl to Satan? And for another government hire to even insinuate that donations might not be going to where it should.

To even have the audacity to utter these words … what a disgrace to humanity. Such behavior is baffling—the inability to recognize a good thing.

I think this is the part where those of us who are still inspired by kindness must say, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” They have become buried so deeply in the stench of government propaganda that they can no longer see anything that has a semblance of light. We must pray for them and their conversion back into a state of grace. Because they cannot see.

Hope

The community pantry initiative has given more than food to the hungry.

It has energized a nation debilitated by hopelessness with a renewed sense of hope.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) co-chaired by Health Sec. Francisco Duque III and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles has shamefully, inarguably failed in addressing the pandemic, with other government officials adding to the sufferings of the people with useless projects like the dolomite on Manila Bay and adding insult to injury with political campaigns for 2022.

The Duterte administration has succeeded in other things like the timely repatriation of overseas Filipino workers, but the crisis management has unquestionably been a disaster.

Yet amidst the desperation, a small bamboo cart has shown that as long as the spirit of kindness burns strongly in our hearts, the miracle of the five loaves and 2 fishes will come to life.

We have hope.

For those of you who would like to donate to a community pantry, you can buy vegetable packs from the Cordillera region at cost (only P100 for a curated box) that can be delivered to your chosen community pantry. Message Cordillera Landing On You (CLOY) on Facebook or call 09178675188.

Follow @margauxsalcedo on Instagram.