Kindness is everyone's color: Lorenzana, Sobejana back community pantry
Top defense and military officials have supported the operations of the community pantry in various parts of the country despite attempts by some individuals, including ranking government officials, to connect some of the organizers to the communist rebels.

On Thursday for instance, soldiers from the Civil Relations Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) visited at least two community pantries in Quezon City and donated vegetables and other food items.
Those visited include the Maginhawa Community Pantry whose organizer Anna Patricia Non was allegedly red-tagged by the two spokespersons of the National Task Force to End Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy and Army Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade.
On the part of DND Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, he said it even made them think to deploy the AFP Mobile Kitchen in order to maximize the assistance to the people affected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
“Kindness is everyone's color. Kahit ano pa ang paniniwala nya, basta taos pusong tumutulong, susuportahan natin. (Whatever her belief, for as long as she is sincerely helping, we will support it),” said Lorenzana, referring to Anna Patricia Non, the woman behind the Maginhawa Community Pantry which is considered as the mother of all community pantries in the Philippines.
“The DND appreciates and supports the initiative of these community pantries. We are ready to assist if requested by the LGUs and the DILG and, if necessary, to deploy the AFP Mobile Kitchens where they are needed,” he added.
For his part, AFP chief of staff Gen. Cirilito Sobejana Jr. said they welcome any move to help the people who lost their jobs and livelihood due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Once they could no longer go out to work, they could no longer feed their families so this gesture to help our less fortunate brothers and sisters is a humanitarian action which your Armed Forces, being the protector of the people, supports,” said Sobejana.
He said he had already ordered the military units concerned to support the initiatives of the community pantry organizers, the reason why soldiers were seen in some community pantries donating food items.
“We are looking for funds for this purpose and I even contemplating of convincing the members of the armed forces to donate one day of our subsistence allowance so with that we will be able to accumulate a substantial amount to support the program of community pantry or other similar humanitarian undertakings,” said Sobejana.