My Thoughts on the Emerging Community Pantries in the Philippines
Pandemic Blog
DISCLAIMER: The views and the opinions of this story are completely products of the author’s observations and self-empiricism. Any messages that aren’t explicitly specified are considered ulterior, unless otherwise stated.
INTRODUCTION
“There’s an old story from the desert fathers and mothers, people of deep faith who found it necessary to go into the desert to find God. They lived in little clusters of communities (much the way many of our communities now live, only that deserts are in inner cities and abandoned places of empires). Someone had brought one of the communities a bundle of grapes as a gift. That was quite a delicacy, maybe sort of like giving someone chocolate truffles today. They got so excited, and what happened next is fascinating. Rather than devour them all, they didn’t eat a single one. They passed them on to the next community to enjoy. And that community did the same thing, eventually, those grapes made it through every community and back to the first community without being eaten.”
Everyone simply just wanted the others to experience the joy of the gift. And this implies that the best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them away. (Shane Claiborne — Irresistible Revolution, p.167)
RECENTLY…
Numerous of community pantries are emerging in the Philippines. These community pantries all over the country follow the only and first stall which existed at Maginhawa Street, Quezon City — now prominently named as the ‘Maginhawa Community Pantry.’ The said set-up then gained innumerable support and circulated online, which basically snatched the netizens’ attention due to its favorable intention and advantage to help and feed others.
While it is true that the emerging community pantries in the different parts of Metro Manila, Northern Luzon, Mindanao, and lately Visayas verily reflect our Filipino cultural root values like ‘bayanihan’ and camaraderie, I still would want to believe [insist] that what is happening in our communities right now in the midst of crisis is beyond the cultural, economical or political realms- and that the way it flourishes and how it positively moves the majority at this tough moment doesn’t have anything to relate with toxic and dirty politics. These emerging community pantries being set-up along roads tagged with the saying, “Magbigay batay sa kakayahan, kumuha batay sa pangangailangan” is actually something biblical.
This is what happens when individuals in their respective communities start to abandon the idea of wanting to meet their every need, themselves and begin to realize that mutual responsibility is not only helpful but indeed vital in our neighborhoods. It is when people starts to become selfless, becomes mindful of each other’s needs, and normalizes kindness without expecting something in return.
Implication of Community Pantries in the Philippine Setting
Amidst scarcity, neither the concealed prosperity of the affluent groups can be deemed as the resolution. In short, one’s greediness in various forms of hoarding and overspending will only worsen the societal dilemma yet on the contrary, kindness can become one of the fluency to fill in lapses and meet everyone on the same ground — it is the ground called love! Moreover, I firmly assert that the creation of these community pantries is a sign of redistribution — a rebirth from how we conventionally see economics systematically works: with distribution as the total output among individuals based on one’s ability of production (labor, land, capital); in which each unit of output corresponds to a unit of income.
The real scenario goes like: what if your neighbor gains least income-coast compared than you did, where you can actually just afford exactly the things you need, including your extra wants? And how about just feeling that conviction inside of you to help? Will you really give?
Verily! There is no such thing as kindness, even in the hierarchy of distribution in economics. Thus as it happens, the reason for a price hike and inflation is the ‘long cut’ or lengthy route of the level of distribution (and of other major factors, of course) — a product or goods for an instance. From the manufacturer to the whole saler, the price increases as it runs to the retailer ’til the customer. The ultimate reason as well, that there will be no such thing as “free” in economics and business. Everything that people get, you make sure that you earn for it!
But be it different for these emerging community pantries — people get what they need (somehow) and give what they wholeheartedly can impart. I am still flabbergasted! These are all done gratuitously and it seems that the neighborhood is breaking off from the cycle of “you get what you worked for — and that is what you deserve.” As if everyone has a decent jobs that pays off bills in this period of pandemic? These community pantries reimagined things from the perspective that we don’t usually gaze at!
When I mentioned earlier that the establishment of these community pantries is something biblical, I mean it based on a bible verse that says, “Love thy neighbor, as you love thyself.” (Matthew 22:39) And unless communities will realize this truth, we will never know how powerful we can become, as collective and unified we are! That is, only if!
All I can say in the end of these, is that “this is the exact glimpse of what heaven looks like on earth! It is good to know that we are trying to grasp and so far live the truth, that we aren’t solely made for our own selves and interests; and while these community pantries reveal a myriad interpretations of our current societal conditions, we are as well learning to understand our collective identity — knowing who we are as communities is powerful. It is significant!”
REFERENCES
News Stories & Related Reports:
Philippines community pantries give help and send a message https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/philippines-community-pantries-give-help-send-message
Policy experts, farmers call for sustainable programs to address hunger https://www.rappler.com/moveph/policy-experts-farmers-call-sustainable-programs-address-hunger-philippines
