The effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on individual’s life is beyond one can imagine. Most of the children have suffered from hunger or nothing to eat due to series of lockdowns in which their parents lost their jobs that disabled them to feed their family. Many students are forced to deal with the anxiety that accompanies living without day-to-day necessities. Hence, this becomes a burden for the learners to improve their learning as it is not easy for them to study their lesson because of lacking needed foods and materials.

        The idea of having a school-community pantry program becomes a part of school’s plan to help alleviate students’ hunger.  A readily accessible source of food assistance by building a school-community pantry program can be seen everywhere. Moreover, on-site food pantries will only be successful in setting-up if the stakeholders with good hearts will be served as partners. The methods for raising funds and collecting food would be appreciated by many parents and other external stakeholders who could afford to donate if the school will appropriately do the mission.

         The dissemination of items to the selected parents/guardians can be done during the retrieval and distribution of the learning packets.  This kind of gesture can become a gateway for the learners to devote their energy and attention toward succeeding in school because of the foods and other useful materials that they will receive from the school.

By: Ms. Verona C. Bergonia | Teacher I | Cataning Elementary School | Balanga City, Bataan