Community Pantry

Filipinos are known to be helpful and is fond to cater "BAYANIHAN" in times of calamities, disasters and with our current situation right now, during this pandemic.

What is "BAYANIHAN"

For those who aren't Filipinos who will encounter this article, let me first define if what "BAYANIHAN" is all about.

BAYANIHAN is derived from the word "BAYAN" which means, nation, town or a certain place. BAYANIHAN refers now to those people who lives in that certain area making a move in helping each other.

With our situation now, because of this pandemic (COVID19), lots of people lost their job since there are also a lot of establishments decided to close their business especially those who are not classified as essentials. It's been a year since the lockdown has been implemented. After how many months, some employees finally went back on their works. Some of those who lost their job are still hard up looking for one because lots of company doesn't have a job vaccancy. Those who doesn't have enough in their life  suffers more because of our situation. Though the government have projects and helps those people but it is not enough since it's not everyday that the government will help them.

Good thing, just this month of April, someone had a great idea to help those who are in need. She started to put up a small stall/cart along Maginhawa Street in Quezon City, Philippines. The cart consists of vitamins, facemasks, vegetables, canned goods and many more, with a handwritten banner which says "MAGINHAWA COMMUNITY PANTRY: MAGBIGAY AYON SA KAKAYAHAN, KUMUHA BATAY SA PANGANGAILANGAN" in English it says "MAGINHAWA COMMUNITY PANTRY: GIVE WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD AND TAKE ONLY WHAT YOU NEED"

This MAGINHAWA COMMUNITY PANTRY went viral and a lot of places here in the Philipines adopted this concept and if I am not mistaken, also some other parts in the world also adopted this so called bayanihan.

People flocked to get some in accordance to what they need. Some people went there to give their donations. Yes, a lot of those who really needs help were given help but sad to say that there are also people who were abusive that even though they can afford to live just on their own, they still manage to go there to the community pantry and get a lot more than just what they need, some people even have their eco-bags to be able to get more and treated like as if the community pantry is a grocery store/market. If we will compare, those who really needs help only gets what they need and those who can live without the help of others got more than compared to the ones who needs help. I am not concluding that all people are like this, there are only some of them. And there are even some instances that those who have less tends to be more giving that they even donate their source of income.

ADVANTAGES OF HAVING A COMMUNITY PANTRY

1. Those people who don't have enough goodies are given help even just for a certain period of time.

2. People who are rich, or those who are able to donate has given chances to share what they have.

DISADVANTAGES OF HAVING A COMMUNITY PANTRY

1. Some other places can't maintain the so-called "social distancing" ( it is the easiest way to maintan so that virus can not be easily transmitted if one is infected) since a lot of people will go there, people can't help but to flocked to get some free foods etc.

2. Some people who can support their daily needs, still can manage to go and get some goodies, They should have given way to others who really need those.

3. Those who can support their needs tend to get a lot more compared to those who have nothing. Those who have nothing get only those goodies that they really need and those who can support their needs are the ones who get lots of goodies (not all but there are people who are like this)

Some of the selfless acts I've seen:

An example is that, a taho vendor started filling up some of his cups with taho and started to display in the pantry.

Also, a camote cue vendor left her camote cues after getting some of her needs in the pantry.

*Instead of selling their items for having profit, they preferred giving it to the public even though we can't deny the fact that they are the one who needs to be given help.

*Community Pantry is a nice platform but people should have discipline among themselves to really achieve its purpose.