In the famous opening paragraph of Charles Dickens ’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities. One would read this gem of an opening line: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, …”

The sudden spread of community pantries that has inspired and helped so many began on April 14, 2021 at 96 Maginhawa Street in Quezon City, in the national Capital Region, when an unassuming 26-year-old “Zoomer,” Patricia Non, decided to do something that she thought could help address the widespread hunger that has befallen our people under an ill-designed anti-pandemic response of national government, especially under the so-called NCR plus bubble where economic activity has been at a virtual standstill.

When Patricia Non posted on social media about her Maginhawa Community initiative, the initiative quickly snowballed into a social movement that, as of this writing, has manifested itself in the form of at least 468 community pantries located in various parts of the country, from as far north in Cagayan, Region 2, to down south in Cagayan de Oro in Region 10. Data on these community pantries is readily available online based on a cloud-based directory set up precisely for community pantry organizers to voluntarily list themselves so prospective donors and partners can readily reach.
See: Community Pantry PH- Public Data

The setting up of all these over 400 community pantries, thus, far took only 11 days. In other words, in just over a week, it took the concern and imagination of but a young woman enabled by social media and the voluntary zeal of ordinary Filipinos to help feed a hungry nation.

It is tragic and ironic however to note that as the community pantry movement showed the best among us Filipinos, it also has shown the worst in some of us especially with irresponsible critics of the initiative red-tagging it or casting aspersions on the integrity and intention of its “organizers” many of whom are actually nameless and faceless Filipinos armed with nothing but hearts of gold and souls of steel.

As an observer of Philippine social reality and a student of the social sciences, the question for me is where to after all this?

Let me add a rather trivial observation to underscore that we are now truly perhaps in the best and worst of times. The virtual leader of this social welfare movement, Patrica Non, is a UP fine arts graduate who was into social entrepreneurship based on her skill as a creative cultural worker. On the other hand, amidst all these, we also saw another UP alumnus, a medical doctor who, in a single tweet, seemingly gloated over the death of one senior citizen who had a heart attack while lined up hoping to get some share from a community pantry set up by Filipina Actress Angel Locsin.

So, in this, our best and worst of times, I say we are a people still seeking meaningful unity behind a leadership that could offer the direction for meaningful action towards change under this pandemic.

Hunger and sickness hounds our land and we are thus only all too willing to follow the lead of almost anyone who offers some glimmer of hope in the darkness that envelopes and oppresses our nation.

Indeed, we are in the best and worst of times.

Despite everything, just as in the dark days of the dictatorship in the 70’s and 80’s, I believe we will overcome our trials as a nation. From among us will eventually rise a leader or leaders who shall direct our resilience and perseverance and focus our collective energies toward real and meaningful change. Let it be so.