When the need arises: Community pantries turned kitchens provide food for evacuees

MANILA, Philippines – Cooks inside the steamy kitchen of a restaurant in Maginhawa Street, Quezon City, have been hard at work since 7 am preparing hot meals for evacuees affected by the enhanced southwest monsoon intensified by Typhoon Carina.

Across Luzon, a similar scenario unfolds. Community pantries that sprouted during the pandemic, and their volunteers, have activated once again to form community kitchens.

There are currently 87 pantries turned kitchens working to distribute meals as of Thursday morning, July 25, said community pantry leader Patricia Non.

“The community pantry, the community kitchen adjust to the needs of the times,” Non told Rappler in Filipino.

Non posted on social media about organizing the community kitchen the night before on July 24, as reports of flooding and forced evacuations came in.

As of writing, there are now kitchens set up in Cavite, Quezon City, Caloocan, Pasig, Rizal, Bulacan, Marikina, Manila, Mandaluyong, and Pangasinan.

Non said they plan to sustain the initiative as long as people are in the evacuation centers– for a day, a week, or a month.

According to Jules Guiang, head of Maginhawa Food Community, four other restaurants and one food stall in the area have volunteered their kitchens to speed up the preparation of food.

Former vice president Leni Robredo also briefly visited the community kitchen in Maginhawa.

Robredo had activated non-government organization Angat Buhay’s network of volunteers to help in the aftermath of disaster. (LIST: How to help communities affected by Typhoon Carina and southwest monsoon)

– Rappler.com