Glynnis Casinyo, Rochelle Remollo, Prof. Dr. Dennis P. McCann
Editor’s Introduction
Prof. Dr. Dennis P. McCann
Faculty Fellow, Silliman University
I am happy to present five case studies researched and written my graduate students at Silliman University. The first three are by Ms. Glynnis Casinyo, the other two are by Ms. Rochelle Remollo.
Ms. Casinyo’s cases are (1) Kitchen Soup Program: A Case Study of the Little Children of the Philippines, Foundation, Inc. (2) Silliman University Food Security Program: An Initiative of the Office of Student Services. (3) Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD): Case Study of Selected Child Development Centers. Ms. Remollo’s cases are (4) Community Pantry in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental: Panag-Ambitay Community Pantry. (5) Silliman University Continuing Calamity Response Program.
For a complete copy of all five case studies, please email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Given the restrictions on space for MRIJ essays, edited versions of Ms. Casinyo’s first case study, “Kitchen Soup Program,” and Ms. Remollo’s study on the “Panag-Ambitay Community Pantry”, will be featured here.
All five of their case studies, however, indicate the range of Hunger Communities developing in Dumaguete in the Province of Negros Oriental, a province with the highest poverty rate in the Central Visayas island group, with “29 out of every 100 individuals in the province belonging to the poor population whose incomes were not sufficient to buy their minimum basic food and non-food needs”, according to The Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) 2021 full-year official poverty statistics.[1] The casual observer in Dumaguete is likely unaware of the extent of poverty, or the efforts of Hunger Communities to mitigate it.
The case studies featured here allow us to examine some of the initiatives taken, usually private, but with promising partnerships with government programs and corporate sponsors, that usually have grown out of natural disasters like typhoons, earthquakes, and most recently the crises resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Though these initiatives, so far, are hardly sufficient to address the problem of food security for all those affected, they do indicate some promising paths forward that, indeed, might be replicable not only in the Philippines but also abroad. The good news is that Negros Oriental is a relatively safe place (Dumaguete styles itself the “City of Gentle People”) without overwhelming problems of gang violence, or levels of corruption that makes public-private partnerships nearly impossible. The province and its shores face east toward Cebu and Bohol, and beyond them the sea lanes across the Pacific toward Mexico. Fishing is still a major food source, and the Province’s relative lack of “development” means that the land is mostly in small holdings where families continue to survive through subsistence farming. It may be puzzling to some readers how and why Hunger is a problem for farmers and fisherfolk, but the fact is that most of these enterprises are barely capable of sustaining a family’s needs. With a poverty rate of 29% it is clear that simply urging ordinary people to continue their traditional practices will not be enough to assure food security.
What then can be done? There is some good news in Dumaguete. One thing emphasized by Casinyo and Remollo, is the strength of traditional Filipino values, like “bayanihan,” a community spirit that prompts people to reach out to support others in their need, especially in times of disaster. Such values still inspire local initiatives, like the Panag-Ambitay Community Pantry, that responded to the needs of pedicab drivers, suddenly deprived of their income because of the COVID restrictions. Once the restrictions were lifted the Pantry continues to function with a shift in focus to retired pedicab drivers still suffering from food shortages.
One major development reported in Casinyo’s research is the relation between various private Hunger initiatives aimed at supplementing the diet of young school children and the government’s so-called “4 Ps” program. Those families enrolled in this program receive small cash grants in exchange for participating in classes aiming to promote personal economic development and insuring that their children faithfully attend their classes in school. The Hunger projects support the “4 Ps” by providing the children with regular meals at school, that also are often for various reasons shared with family members at home. Again, the “bayanihan” ethic seems to be working here, so that cooperation between family members and among supporting private and public agencies can actually be effective. The challenge for outsiders is whether the “bayanihan” ethic can be discovered in other cultures and developed to support food security.
Kitchen Soup Program: A Case Study of the Little Children of the Philippines, Foundation, Inc.
Glynnis Casinyo
Despite the progress reported in the Global Hunger Index,[2] an estimated 20 million Filipinos fall below the national poverty line, which raises a concern about potential exclusion from social safety nets and economic opportunities for certain vulnerable groups.[3] In a study reported by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization,[4] almost 70 percent of the population cannot afford a healthy diet.
Background
A non-governmental organization and a registered charity, Little Children of the Philippines (LCP), an affiliate of the Little Children of the World, a Christian ministry formed in the USA, has provided grants to allow the poorest families to educate their children since 1989. As a community-based Christian organization, they have been helping children – street kids, the homeless, and at-risk kids in Dumaguete. Sometime in the year 2000, a soup kitchen program was started for malnourished kids in Barangay Looc which continues at present. The program aims to make the children healthier and happier and thus enable them to attend classes. Moreover, the program was replicated in Barangay Calindagan, particularly in Canday-ong area where these children's parents are mostly fisherfolks, carpenters, and market vendors.
Methodology
The study comprehensively reviewed related literature, reports, and studies on food insecurity, community, and government responses to alleviate hunger. The primary data were gathered through in-person interviews where the research assistant asked a set of direct questions to respondents; through a written questionnaire; and a site visit.
The respondents are classified into four (4) – the beneficiaries or those who have been recipients of the food grants provided; the food provider’s staff who administer and oversee the regular operation of the program; the volunteers who provide hands-on service on a regular basis; and the donors who provide financial resources to run the feeding program, as well as the collaborators who manage the resources given by the donors.
The ten respondents interviewed include 4 beneficiaries -- minor schoolchildren, all females ages 11 to 14 years old residing in Lo-oc and Calindagan, Dumaguete City, respectively; 2 food provider’s staff, female with residences in Barangay Pulangtubig and Calindagan, ages 49 and 59, respectively. 2 volunteers, a donor, and a collaborator. Minor grade school children were gathered and accompanied by the food provider’s staff. They were provided with a questionnaire written in English and a local language translation. The researcher conducted the interviews and expounded the questions to the pupils to enable them to answer accurately. The food provider’s staff and volunteers were asked to write their responses in the questionnaire provided. Finally, the donor and collaborator were interviewed based on the same sequence of questions.
The Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries are elementary pupils in the Amador Dagudag Memorial Elementary School (ADMES) and Calindagan Elementary School (CALES). As elementary pupils, they responded that they were not working while studying. Two of the respondents’ mothers are housewives while the two others work as food vendor and store helper. The fathers have different jobs - carpenter, stevedoring, fisherman, and one respondent mentioned that his father is unknown to her.
Three beneficiary-respondents confirmed that the house where they have been staying for several years now is rented, only one mentioned that they owned it. However, they all responded that they owned a piece of land within the province of Negros Oriental. Two respondents confirmed that the family grows cash crops and maintains livestock or poultry; and one admitted that the family does not grow cash crops or have livestock or poultry.
All respondents confirmed that their respective families are beneficiaries of the government program called Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) under the Department of Social Welfare and Development. An initiative of the Philippine government,[5] the program aims to improve qualified beneficiaries’ health, nutrition, and education for seven (7) years. 4Ps is patterned after the conditional cash transfer scheme implemented in other developing countries. Eligible beneficiaries are those classified as those belonging to poor households – farmers, fisherfolks, homeless families, indigenous peoples, and those in the informal settlers sector. However, conditions for entitlements are set to different age groups as outlined in the law. In addition to the cash grant entitlement, automatic coverage of PhilHealth insurance provides healthcare benefits to its members.
The 4Ps beneficiaries at ADMES and CALES have been recipients of the LCP feeding program since their kindergarten years or eight years to date. The manner of enlisting the children is based on the recommendation of their respective classroom advisors. Not all children are eligible beneficiaries of the feeding program. The criteria are based on the family status, health condition of the child, and whether the potential recipient is undernourished. At ADMES, there are 80 children recipients while at CALES, 45 children are beneficiaries of the same program. Of the total 125 children benefiting from the LCP, 28 of them belong to families who are members of the 4Ps.
Meals are served daily, Mondays to Fridays, except holidays, at lunchtime. The LCP kitchen staff prepares a complete hot meal. A planned weekly cycle menu has been implemented but since the children knew what items are served for a particular day, some will not avail of the food because children do not like eating vegetables. Thus, to mitigate food waste, the kitchen staff had to reshuffle the weekly menu so the children come to the kitchen and eat. Aside from the complete meal, the children have availed themselves of the daily vitamins required for their age group.
The Food Provider’s Staff and Volunteers
As volunteers and staff, they work four hours a day during school days. Their responsibilities include preparing and serving the food to the recipients, teaching them proper hygiene and table etiquette, and integrating spiritual guidance and good manners. One common difficulty or challenge among the volunteers and staff is when there is conflict among the children or petty quarrels among the beneficiaries. Children misbehave at times and they have to exercise parenting skills without physically harming the children.
The Donors and Collaborators
For financial support, the donors send donations through bank remittances. The management of LCP is transparent as regards the utilization and distribution of funds and other resources. The LCP provides monthly reports to the donors, and if they come to the city, they have opportunities to interact with the children. In-kind donations are sent through a courier in big boxes. Since these goods take time to arrive in the Philippines from America, LCP staff have to ensure that the expiry dates of the canned goods, vitamins, and other perishable goods are still within the safe dates.
LCP is financially stable. LCP’s initiative on the Kitchen Soup Project as it focuses on food security and poverty alleviation gained popularity not just among its recipients and their families but also raised awareness about nutrition and health needs. As a result, it breeds community support and encourages volunteerism and donation among residents of the city and some entities. Based on the LPC management’s periodic assessment and evaluation, there is a substantial improvement in class attendance among the recipients and the children’s nutrition and health have been improved.
Discussion
Feeding programs whether government-funded or privately run such as the Little Children of the Philippines’ Soup Kitchen Project, encourage the potential beneficiaries to enroll in schools because they can rely on the availability of food, with at least one proper meal a day. The program ensures that hunger is not a barrier to learning because food is made available for them. These feeding programs ensure that a particular age group's recommended energy and nutrient intakes (RENI) have been carefully assessed and periodically evaluated.
The field interviews show that a significant drop in irregular class attendance has occurred because schoolchildren are encouraged to attend classes. The parents play an important role in encouraging their children to attend school because food is secure for the child.
The recipients confirmed that they are encouraged to attend classes because they are assured of a meal for the day. Moreover, since a significant percentage of these students whose families are members of the government’s 4Ps program, eligibility for receiving the grant is for the children to attend classes at school as one of its conditions.
Conclusion
Good nutrition, strong health status, and the children’s performance and behavior in school underscores the importance of holistic support for young learners. The correlation between these benefits received by the schoolchildren from non-governmental organizations such as the LCP and the complementary benefits from the government through the 4Ps program is contingent on well-designed policies aimed at promoting sustainable and thriving communities. The benefits of these programs empower the children to break the cycle of poverty and achieve their full potential. Drawing from the best practices of the Soup Kitchen Program and the 4Ps provides valuable insights. Effective monitoring is a vital investment in the program’s success and the well-being of the beneficiaries.
Community Pantry in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental
Panag-Ambitay Community Pantry
Rochelle Marie C. Remollo
Introduction
The community pantries in the Philippines came about as a response to food security concerns of communities during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The emergence of the community pantries in the Philippines stemmed from what Janet Poppendieck (1999) described in her book Sweet Charity, as a “public disillusionment about the government’s ineptitude in providing food assistance for the hungry poor during the pandemic” (Espartinez, 2021). It created a renewed sense of community, a collective identity of people relying on each other.
One of the first community pantries was the Maginhawa Community Pantry initiated by Ana Patricia Non in Quezon City, on April 14, 2021. In a span of one week after her post went viral on social media, there were over 200 community pantries which opened all over the country (Kusuma, 2021). The Philippine network of community pantries are now part of the Community Pantry PH. Their presence is visible through the social media platform Facebook. They are actively involved in providing packed/hot meals to people affected by critical incidents such as typhoons, flooding, fire among others.
Background
In Dumaguete City, several initiatives also sprouted because of the community pantry movement. One is the Panag-Ambitay (from the Filipino word “ambit” meaning to take part or contribute) Community Pantry. It was composed of a group of friends who came together to help the pedicab drivers who were affected by the restrictions brought about by the lockdowns.
Initially, it started with providing hot porridge (“dinuldog”) to pedicab drivers who were affected because of COVID-19 restrictions. Then the group prepared food packs containing cooking essentials (i.e. oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar), fresh vegetables, canned goods, instant noodles, rice, and instant coffee, for random pedicab drivers plying the street. Then the group set-up the community pantry inside the vicinity of 58 EJ Blanco (currently the Arts and Design Collective Dumaguete) for the residents of Barangay Piapi.
Methodology
In documenting initiatives conducted in Dumaguete City and the province of Negros Oriental, on alleviating hunger and addressing food insecurity, the researcher used structured questionnaires through in-person interviews and questionnaires sent through email.
Respondents of the Study
Participants in the study consisted of two (2) organizers/collaborators/donors, two (2) volunteers/donors, and six (6) recipients or beneficiaries.
The identified recipients were pedicab drivers, residents of Barangay Piapi, residents of Barangay Taclobo (Purok Colon Ext., Banikanhon, Batimar), a highly populated inner-city barangay living close to the Banika River, and residents of Barangay Salag, Siaton, which is a community of fisherfolk.
Some of the identified beneficiaries of the community pantry, were pedicab drivers of ND Motors. It is an organized group of 153 pedicab drivers in Dumaguete City, an organization founded in 2004, supported by the Institute of Religion and Culture in the Philippines (IRCP), a non-government organization. One of the pedicab drivers interviewed for the study was Cirilo, 58 years old, formerly a baker, and a resident of Dumaguete City. He has been a pedicab driver since 1996. He currently leads the group of ND Motors. According to him, during the height of the pandemic, they were the group who offered free rides to commuters.
The interviewees shared that their group appreciated receiving the food packs because it helped tide them over during the pandemic. During that time the number of passengers were limited and their allowed trips were limited as well. Most of the pedicab drivers have only a single source of income. One of the interviewees, Wenceslao, 43 years old, shared that they earned at least 700-800 pesos (US$12-14) daily or 3,000-4,000 pesos (US$51-68) weekly.
Residents of Purok Colon Ext. and Purok Banikanhon were also beneficiaries of the community pantry in Colon. According to the beneficiaries, the food they received were good enough to provide for their family for that week. One of the beneficiaries, Anabella, 50 years old, who has been working as a housekeeper for 10 years, mentioned that her income is not enough to provide for their family of 8. Although her husband is also working, they barely make ends meet, having to pay for the rent of the land their home is built on. The same sentiment was shared by Zenaida, 53 years old, who was currently jobless. She is dependent on her husband to provide for their family’s needs.
Another community who were beneficiaries of the community pantry is Purok 5 of Barangay Salag, Siaton, a fishing village, south of Dumaguete City. One of the donors saw the need to reach out to this community seeing how the livelihood of the fisherfolk were affected during the pandemic lockdowns. For two years now, the community pantry has provided food packs containing rice, canned goods, condiments, biscuits, coffee/milk, noodles, and selected vegetables, at least twice a year. The organizers coordinated with local barangay officials to inform the residents of Purok 5 about the schedule of the community pantry.
One of the recipients interviewed was Mercedes, 61 years old, wife of a fisherman. She has four (4) children, but only one still lives with the couple. They own the property that they live in. Her other children lived nearby and one of the daughters, despite being married, regularly visits the parents. Mercedes owns a small store to help the family when fish catch is scarce. Her income varies because some of the neighbors buy on credit or “utang.” During the pandemic, she earned less than what she usually earns because most of her neighbors who were fisherfolk faced restrictions implemented because of the pandemic.
One of the operators of the Panag-Ambitay Community Pantry is self-employed and a resident of Dumaguete City. As one of the organizers and a donor, she chose to donate to the pantry because she believed in the integrity of the operators and organizers. Donations for the community pantry came from private funds of the operators, close family and friends, corporate funding (e.g. BPI Foundation/Ayala Foundation), and random donors who learned about the initiative by word-of-mouth. Apart from monetary donations, some are in the form of grocery items, sacks of rice, fresh vegetable produce, trays of fresh eggs, condiments (i.e. soy sauce, vinegar, salt, sugar, oil), and other cooking essentials.
Volunteers of the community pantries mostly belong to the same social network. One of the volunteers, who is a medical doctor, shared that she chose to volunteer “to be part of a community with shared core values.” Another volunteer also mentioned that volunteering helps get things done in the fastest possible time. To be a volunteer, one must be willing to give and cooperate. Given the nature of the community pantry, one must be able-bodied, willing to carry items, do inventory of food supplies, help in repacking, run errands for the group, coordinate the distribution of food packs, buy supplies, organize, and coordinate food donations with communities in need, and understand the logistics involved.
Discussion
The community pantry has helped alleviate food security concerns of the people. It also helped mobilize volunteerism and promote a sense of community among members of society. It opened opportunities for people and organizations to help those in need and address food insecurity. The framework used in successful community pantries include an established system implemented by its organizers. Accountability and transparency of sources of funds, resources, and support is imperative.
In terms of sustainability, the operation of the community pantry is dependent on regular donations, mostly from private funds, and the support of the barangay captain, who is responsible for identifying the recipients. This ensured a more organized and systematic distribution. Food items were sourced from reliable farm suppliers, who at that time, were also struggling with distribution of their produce because of the pandemic restrictions.
It was a challenge for the group to minimize the use of single-use plastic to repack the donated food. Reusable containers, reusable bags, reusable paper bags were maximized in packing the food items. Challenges include the need to report real time data requested by concerned local government units. Inflation and increasing cost of goods and increasing number of recipients were also points for concern.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The emergence of community pantries in the Philippines is a testament of humanity’s ability to fill in a need, and in this case, to address food insecurity. It also showed the world that Filipinos could create opportunities to check their privilege and entitlement by collective solutions in communities. It was also a lesson of moderation and consideration for others – taking only what you need and giving what you can.
Community pantries in the Philippines are mostly pop-up initiatives especially during calamities, disasters, and critical incidents. They are organized by private individuals and organizations with well-established networks of donors and volunteers, actively using social media platforms to call for donations.
Community pantries play an important role in supporting the government agencies in establishing a system to address food insecurity. It is vital to investigate possibilities for improving food distribution and sourcing of goods and produce locally. Efficient mapping of possible community beneficiaries reached must be implemented. It is recommended that instead of just providing food packs, other means to sustain the initiative should be investigated, such as capacity building of communities so they will not be dependent on “dole-outs” or food assistance.
[1]Tilos, Jennifer, “PSA: NegOr tops poverty rate in CV”. https://mirror.pia.gov.ph/news/2023/02/07/psa-negor-tops-poverty-rate-in-cv. These statistics, of course, reflect conditions just after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and not the subsequent recovery where conditions seem to be improving.
[2]Global Hunger Index (GHI). 2025 GHI Results accessed on September 23, 2025, from: https://www.globalhungerindex.org/results.html
[3]United Nations in the Philippines. 2023. Common Country Analysis for the 2024–2028 Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework. Accessed on August 15, 2024 from:
https://minio.uninfo.org/uninfo-production-main/23cef9fd-8eb6-4727-bf8a-0cbc393225a9_UN_PHL_Common_Country_Analysis_FINAL(June-2023).pdf?
[4]Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and others. 2023. Asia and the Pacific – Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2022. Urban food security and nutrition. Accessed on August 15, 2024, from: https://www.fao.org/3/cc3990en/cc3990en.pdf?
[5]Pantawid Pilipino Program Act . https://pantawid.dswd.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/12152020_4Ps_Law_.pdf. Accessed; September 4, 2024.
Glynnis Casinyo, Silliman University.
Rochelle Remollo, Silliman University.
Prof. Dr. Dennis P. McCann, Faculty Fellow, Silliman University, MRIJ Managing Editor.
REFERENCES
- Espartinez, A. (2021). Emerging Pantries in the Philippines during the Pandemic: Hunger, Healing, and Hope. Religious 12:926. https//doi.org/10.3390/rel12110926.
- Kusuma, N. (2021). Maginhawa Community Pantry in the Philippines: a new hope. https://greennetwork.asia/news/maginhawa-community-pantry-in-the-philippines-a-new-hope/ .
- Poppendieck, J. (1999). Sweet Charity? Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement. London: Penguin Books.
- Vallevecer, N. (2021). Ana Patricia Non and a street that turned into a movement. https://www.rappler.com/moveph/maginhawa-community-pantry-ana-patricia-street-becomes-movement/
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