Community pantries in the Philippines

The initiative caught the attention of Filipinos on social media,[3] creating a "snowball effect", with citizens putting up their own pantries in their communities[4] and inspiring people from other countries do the same.

[1] President Rodrigo Duterte had earlier called the COVID-19 pandemic "a small thing" ("maliit na bagay") despite the positivity rate at the time breaking previous records.

Despite allocating ₱23 million for 80% of the low-income population in the aforementioned areas, the distribution of aid to these regions was slow and hampered by issues related to logistics and health concerns.

[1] Non was a visual communication alumnus of the University of the Philippines Diliman College of Fine Arts[14] who had been forced to close her furniture refurbishing business due to the pandemic.

[15] Having participated in community feeding programs in the past, Non placed a bamboo cart[16] full of essential supplies such as alcohol, rice, vegetables, and canned goods[17] along Maginhawa Street in her neighborhood of Teachers Village East in Quezon City on April 14, 2021.

[16] Donors were inspired by the initiative to donate to the Maginhawa community pantry, including a group of farmers from the distant province of Nueva Ecija, who asked their Roman Catholic parish priest to deliver a donation of fresh vegetables on their behalf,[18] and a group of farmers from Paniqui, Tarlac, who sent a harvest of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas).

"[2] Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology sociology Professor Arnold Alamon noted that the communities exposed a "phenomenon of hunger and poverty" in which "even in the urban places and semi-urban center in the provinces, there are those who are in need.

"[33] University of the Philippines sociologist Athena Charanne Presto noted that the community pantries were a way for the ordinary citizen to take action in the face of a crisis, adding that the community pantries movement can be seen as acts of resistance against the failure of the government to adequately address citizens' needs, against the biased and discriminatory view of the poor as selfish and greedy, and against aid initiatives from institutions that are difficult to trust.

[35] Organizers of the community pantries, which had operated largely without help from or coordination with the government soon became a target of "red-tagging" by local units of the Philippine National Police (PNP),[1] as well as the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC)[1] that Duterte established after shuttering national-level peace talks with communist insurgents in December 2018.

[36] Notable incidents include various social media posts published by the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) and the NTF-ELCAC with unsubstantiated claims that community pantries were affiliated with insurgents[1] and were being used as a front to recruit rebels for their cause.

[39] Presidential Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, who was also a co-spokesperson of the NTF-ELCAC, likewise accused Non of being part of ARMAS, which was allegedly an underground communist organization.