SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) announced it has launched its own mobile community pantries.
The SBMA said its employees have put up pantries at the Rizal Gate of the Subic Bay Freeport last April 29, Kalaklan Gate last April 30 and the Kalayaan Gate last May. The SBMA said these pantries offered vegetables, eggs, noodles, biscuits and meat that were initially sourced from employees and later on from some locators here.
Law Enforcement Department Officer in Charge Gerardo A. Johnson said more of these movable pantries will be set up in the future as more assistance from these locators continues to pour in.
The SBMA added that other employees also partnered with local organizations for a community pantry in remote communities in the Subic Bay Area.
Armina Belleza C. Llamas, head of the SBMA Public Relations Department, said this pantry was born out of the “earnest pleas and requests from marginalized communities around the Freeport” after the successful project launch at the Subic Bay Freeport Main Gate last April 22.
Last April 28, the mobile pantry reached the foothills of Barangay New Cabalan in Olongapo City to provide bags of foodstuffs to members of the Ambala Ayta tribe, according to Llamas.
The second one last May 6 brought the volunteers to the shores of Barangay Cawag at the Redondo Peninsula in Subic, Zambales to deliver donated foodstuff to 130 Amianan Ayta families, she said.
“In these days of the pandemic, we need to look out for each other in order to survive,” SBMA Chairman Wilma T. Eisma said. “We can only rise as a community when we lift others up.”
Image courtesy of Photo courtesy Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority