Community pantry ‘fever’ hits Iloilo

By Joseph B.A. Marzan and Sean Rafio

 

More than a year into the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, people have still been providing support to those who have been affected economically by the effects of this menace.

Recently, many “community pantries” have been set up across the country by private individuals, inspired by one which was set up along the famous Maginhawa Street in Diliman, Quezon City.

Ana Patricia Non, who set up the Maginhawa Community Pantry, said in interviews that it was intended to “help those in the community who were in dire need”, as well as to “call out the government’s incompetence” in providing assistance to those affected by the pandemic.

Here in Iloilo, the “trend” of setting up community pantries also picked up steam, there have been four as of this writing—two in Iloilo City, and one each in the towns of Barotac Viejo and Pototan.

Daily Guardian spoke to organizers of similar community pantries in Brgy. Mansaya, Lapuz, Iloilo City, and in Pototan, Iloilo.

Carmela Adelantar, a student of the University of the Philippines Visayas, grabbed the idea when it trended on social media.

Adelantar echoed Non’s reasons for pushing with their version of the community pantry, citing government incompetence as the motivation for setting up the community pantry there, which was in partnership with the barangay’s Sangguniang Kabataan.

Despite not being a resident of the area, she said she and co-organizer Allen Evidente, chose to place the ‘Buligay Iloilo Community Pantry’ at Brgy. Mansaya because it was still affected by last year’s oil spill from a nearby power barge explosion.

“[The community pantry] is to further amplify the inaction of the government to address this pandemic and help the people to recover from impacts of the ongoing pandemic. The inaction of the government is manifested in the rising cases of COVID-19, rising cases of death, and misaligned policies,” Adelantar told Daily Guardian.

Since their weekend fundraising announcement, they were able to collect P5,500 from donors across the country, which they used to buy vegetables, canned goods, noodles, rice, soap, bread, face shields, and sanitary needs for women.

They’ve envisioned letting their community pantry project run for two weeks, after which they will turn over the initiative to the SK due to their schedule as students.

With the help of barangay officials and donors, the “Buligay Community Pantry” now contains basic goods such as rice, bread, vegetables, noodles, canned goods, eggs, alcohol, soap, and face shields.

It is located at the Barangay Hall of Barangay Mansaya, Lapuz and opens from 8 AM to 5 PM.

This community pantry has adopted the original Maginhawa core principle: “Magbigay ayon sa kakayahan, kumuha batay sa pangangailangan,” which in Hiligaynon translates to: “Magkuha sang kinahanglan, maghatag sang masarangan.”

Just like any other community pantry, anyone can leave food and other essential goods in this communal area, then anyone who needs these goods can freely take what they need.

Buligay community pantry accepts in-kind donations or cash contributions through GCash: 09972203820 (Allen Dave Evidente), and BPI: 9249 4019 91 (Carmela Francesca Sevillano Adelantar).

“If they have the goods with them, they can directly put their in-kind donations on the community pantry at the Barangay Hall of Brgy. Mansaya-Lapuz. We recognize that this initiative will not run for a long time since it is driven by the solidarity of the people and donations cannot sustain the pantry. However, by encouraging more people to help and join this movement, it may turn the impossible, possible – making it sustainable,” Adelantar said.

Adelantar and Evidente said they will be returning to Brgy. Mansaya tomorrow, April 21, to host a feeding program for residents.

 

BAYANIHAN SPIRIT

Sugar Araña, who organized the community pantry in front of a parish church in Pototan, expressed how she was also inspired by the Maginhawa Community Pantry.

Unlike other versions of the community pantry across the country, this one in Pototan only runs during the afternoons of Saturday and Sunday, which she explained that it gives time for donations to be collected and for them to buy the products to be given away.

The community pantry in Pototan started last Sunday, April 18, and she thought of the idea only the night before.

To start the community pantry in their town, she contacted a local youth organization who had tasked themselves with calling for donations and helped disseminate information among town residents.

“When I saw the community pantries that went viral via Facebook, it gave me an idea that this will be easy although I could do the back works on my own. Fortunately, mostly those who donated are younger people in high school or college who are already leaders in our universities, and even members of the community who were willing to help through information dissemination,” said Araña in a phone interview.

Their community pantry’s products are categorized into three—hygiene kits which include face masks, shampoo, and soap; produce donated from local farms including kangkong, camote, mangoes, and bananas; and food packs with processed food like noodles and rice.

She observed that face masks were the most grabbed product in their community pantry, whose primary patrons are pedicab drivers who were previously reusing their face masks on a daily basis.

Their community pantry is partnering with businesses in Pototan who will donate products to be distributed, which she envisions to run for two months, but hopes that it will exist beyond the pandemic.

She stated that her main goal in doing the community pantry in their town is to emphasize the return of the barter system and the Filipino “Bayanihan” spirit into the normal, post-COVID fold.

“What we are looking at is the ability of our community pantry to inculcate the spirit of giving and collaboration, so that if the community pantry ends in maybe two months, or when things are back to normal, what we are looking forward to is when there are disasters like typhoons or earthquake, automatically the community pantry will still be there. It is something that inculcates ‘Bayanihan’ and barter system like when you get something, you give something also,” she said.

Another community pantry that caught public attention is the New Lucena Community Pantry in New Lucena, Iloilo that was set up by Alexis Nicole Apostol and some friends in front of the town’s fire station.

“Magkuha lang sang kinahanglan. Maghatag lang sang ikasarang (Take according to need. Give according to capacity),” captioned Alexis on her Facebook post.

For in-kind donations, residents in New Lucena can drop off their excess goods in the pantry while non-residents interested in donating can contact Chris Marquelencia and Alex Alexander Ernest on Facebook.

 

Netizen Florencio Yap also shared photos of another community pantry in Alta Tierra Village in Jaro, Iloilo City.

Yap said the pantry helps the less fortunate in Alta Tierra and the neighboring barangays.

Observers have labeled the emergence of community pantries as a sign of the national government’s helplessness amid the pandemic.

But Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the move is a testament to the Filipinos’ Bayanihan spirit or sense of belongingness and willingness to help in times of crisis.

(Photos from Florencio Yap via Alta Tierra Homeowners Association, Alexis Nicole Apostol, Buligay Community Pantry-Mansaya, and Youth Circle-Pototan)