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Journal of Public Health | pp. 1–2

Correspondence
Community pantry: not just a place of charity
but a space of communal healing

ABSTRACT

AQ6 In earlier correspondence, the authors have proposed for an integration of an ethics of compassion in an attempt to explore the charismatic
rise of the community pantry movement in the Philippines. Along that line, I would attempt to analyze it within the biblical narrative of Jesus’
compassion. By nuancing this phenomenon within this theological lens, I aim to establish that more than just venues for charity and refuge,
community pantries are spaces of communal healing through social connectedness.

Keywords compassion, Covid-19, healing, pandemic

To the editor complex (sympathy) towards a more resolute determination

In the Philippines, the community pantry has become a sym-
bol of community-driven generosity amid the Covid-19 pan-
demic.1 Its continuous spread across the country is a testa-
ment not only to how it has been positively received by people
but also to how it has positively affected them. Del Castillo and
Maravilla argued that community pantry has contributed to
public health by providing a space for people to work together
and help those vulnerable members of society. For them, it
has become a venue for people to show compassion.2 But
compassion is not just an act of pity or even an exercise of
mercy. It is not a pure feeling or sentiment as it involves the
relief of the pain of others.3
In the biblical narrative, compassion was Jesus’ response to
any encounter of a suffering individual. That whenever he is
faced with a poor, a leper or a person handicapped by physical
disability, scriptures would say how he was moved with com-
passion. Exegetically speaking, the original Greek word used
by the Bible writers was σ πλαγ χ νιζ oµαι (splanchnizomai). In
Greek, splanch refers to guts, and ancient Jews often located
the core of one’s emotions down in his/her guts.4 What this
means is that in any encounter with a suffering individual,
Jesus feels an intense emotional reaction to the pain of the
person in front of him. More than just a feeling of pity to the
plight of the poor; it fosters a deep interconnection with the
poor and imprints a challenge to go beyond the feeling-with
to liberate the poor from such oppression. The philological
and semantic depth of splanchnizomai challenges any initiative
of charity to evaluate its existential impact in addressing the
plight of the vulnerable members of society.
Along this line, the community pantry endeavors to be a
beacon of light amid the shadows of scarcity and dearth in
the ground. Driven by its tagline, ‘Give what you can, take
what you need’, the community pantry provides a space for
people to respond with compassion. That in the face of the
undeserved suffering of their neighbors, they connect and
pool all their available resources, voluntarily segregate and
pack all donations, and distribute them to those who need
them most. What this phenomenon indirectly reveals is how
this bond of social (inter-)connection has also brought forth
healing to them. Social connectedness is identified as one
essential coping strategy for the management of stress.5
Community pantry continues to spread across the country
and it has also been replicated even abroad.6 It is hoped that as
it continues to operate as a venue for people to share resources
with or obtain basic supplies from, its organizers would not
veer away from how it has also become a space for peo-
ple to express their deep-seated emotions of compassion in
response to the undeserved suffering of their neighbors. That
with a collective expression of compassion, they have also
built a community-embedded social (inter-)connectedness.

© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com 1
 OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – FIRST PROOF, 30/6/2021, SPi
2 JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Funding
No funding was received for this paper.
Conflict of interest
The author declares no conflict of interest in this paper.
References
1 David R. Generosity: the will to give. Philippine Daily Inquirer. 25
April 2021. https://opinion.inquirer.net/139628/generosity-the-will-
to-give (5 June 2021, date last accessed).
2 Del Castillo FA, Maravilla MI. Community pantries: their role in public
health during the Covid-19 pandemic. J Public Health (Oxf) 2021. doi:
10.1093/pubmed/fdab154.
3 Fox M. A Spirituality Named Compassion and the Healing of the Global Village,
Humpty Dumpty and Us. San Francisco: Harper and Row Publishers,
1997.
4 Williams T. The Emotions of Jesus, Part 3: Compassion. The Good
Book Blog. 15 June 2015. https://www.biola.edu/blogs/good-boo
k-blog/2015/the-emotions-of-jesus-part-3-compassion (5 June 2021,
date last accessed).
5 Macaraan MC. Mental health and legal education in the time of pan-
demic. J Public Health (Oxf) 2021. doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdab170.
6 CNN Philippines Staff. Inspired by PH initiative, Timor-Leste sets up first
community pantry. CNN Philippines. 22 April 2021. https://cnnphili
ppines.com/news/2021/4/22/Timor-Leste-sets-up-first-communi
ty-pantry.html?fbclid=IwAR33I8QCVqy6Q_mhJ3YYxOziWhm0-
NKVbshwp5PZIXDJxvI9YFe9DfCl2RQ (5 June 2021, date last
accessed).
Willard Enrique R. Macaraan
Theology and Religious Education Department, De La Salle
University, 2401 Taft Avenue, 1004 Manila, Philippines
Address correspondence to Willard Enrique R. Macaraan,
Email: willard.macaraan@dlsu.edu.ph
doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdab265