Abstract
This research is a critical approach to the emergence of community pantries during the COVID-19 pandemic as at-once contestatory and transformative narratives, foregrounding the Filipino poor’s experience of hunger, suffering, and marginality, while also highlighting their collective hope for a better world. I began by exploring the emergence of the community pantry in the Philippines, which was prompted by the government’s inadequate response to the plight of the hungry poor due to prolonged mandatory lockdown in the National Capital Region. I then turned to Emmanuel Levinas’ concept of hunger as the basis for the ethical giving displayed in the community pantries, which is a symbolic arena where leadership is questioned and the marginalized voices of the hungry poor are both mainstreamed and articulated. I brought ethical giving into relation with the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam as the platform for the possibility of healing wounded relations. I constructed a particular weave between the community pantry and the Filipinos’ shared experiences of hunger that touches on the ethical that can create liberating spaces for collective hope. In conclusion, I argue that this study is valuable for confronting unexamined assumptions of the relationship between hunger, healing, and hope for critical pedagogy and critical spirituality, which can have significant philosophical and theological implications.
Highlights
As bleak as our world appears due to this life-changing pandemic, the acts of kindness and generosity displayed in the community pantry have gone viral, vocal, and visceral
The nourishment available at the food pantry serves as a temporary relief for the deep hunger Filipino people felt during the pandemic and as a permanent quest for a better life for the hungry poor
The community pantry is a contestatory site, as it is a strong reminder, following Levinas’ concept of ethical relation, of our failure to fulfill our commitment to others to display compassionate responsibility and social justice
Summary
As bleak as our world appears due to this life-changing pandemic, the acts of kindness and generosity displayed in the community pantry have gone viral, vocal, and visceral. This article highlights the experience of hunger during the COVID-19 pandemic that exposes human negligence, which has led to fractured, fragmented, and wounded relations. It seeks to foreground Filipinos’ shared experiences of hunger and how such experiences create spaces for redemptive healing and collective hope amidst the feeling of abandonment, oppression, and marginalization. The community pantry provides this narrative: had we not been appallingly remiss in our obligation to feed the hungry, no hungry poor would have sought food in the community pantry
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