Thanks to Facebook groups, alumni and students from the De La Salle University (DLSU) have joined hands to put up their own community pantry.
According to Martin Cervantes, one of the organizers of the pantry, the idea started with a meme on Facebook group "Big Four Trashtalkan."
Cervantes then shared the meme to another Facebook group "A group where we all pretend to be in Taft," with the caption "Can we actually do this?"
The group currently has over 80,000 members consisting of DLSU students, employees, and alumni.
"I was honestly shooting for the stars here, or so I thought. The next turn of events were a blur but long story short -- 3k people were keen to the idea, there was a pitch to the school to make this happen, a Zoom call of reps was done between alumni, students, COSCA , DLSU USG , and the admin," Cervantes wrote on Facebook.
After a series of meetings and consultation, the name "Dude, Pantry, Chong - The Taft Times Community Pantry initiative" was born.
"I couldn't have dreamed of such an awesome outcome to be born out of a meme -- but here we are! I'm proud of the LaSallian community especially EVERYONE in the FB group A group where we all pretend to be in Taft that has so far gone over and beyond this effort," he added.
Meanwhile, Andrew Pamorada, also one of the organizers, thanked DLSU employees who help them man the community pantry.
"I would like to end this day to just commend the unsung heroes of our Lasallian Community Pantry which is our diars and security staff," Pamorada wrote on Facebook.
"These are the people that I'm personally working with the whole day with the pantry -- organizing people, getting goods, packing and sorting stuff, etc. As in literally without them this would not really work," he added.
The community pantry is set up in front of the Taft Gate of the Andrew Building.