BAY, Laguna - A group of performers contributed their talents to raise funds for a community pantry in front of the Saint Augustine Parish Church at Barangay San Agustin on Friday (April 30).

According to Justine D. Olaes, one of the volunteers of BAYanihan Community Pantry, the group of young musicians approached them and offered to perform as a way to help the initiative.

"Busking is a street performance, where buskers perform for voluntary donations," Olaes told the Manila Bulletin. "We saw busking as a way where we can help in funding and sustaining the community pantry. Entertaining and helping combined in one activity."

The performances lasted for five hours, with the volunteer musicians enduring the afternoon heat to help sustain the community pantry.

People chipping in

Ronald, a jeepney barker in the area where the community pantry is set, habitually helps organizers arrange goods on the table and reminds beneficiaries to maintain social distancing.

On the day of the busking event, he carried the donation box and approached jeepney drivers passing by to donate. It was the same way he earned his income as a barker. But he offered a few hours of his workday to help the community pantry.

Aside from Ronald, the volunteers were also touched by the support from tricycle drivers and commuters who chipped in. One unexpected donor was a pizza delivery man who took a break from his duties to stop by the busking event and put money on the donation box.

The parish also opened its doors to the initiative. As most of the volunteers of the community pantry were servers of the church, the parish offered one of its multi-purpose halls as a storage room for material donations.

"One of our goals is to inspire the 15 barangays of Bay to have their own pantries," Olaes told the Manila Bulletin. "And at this point in time, we do have roughly, 13 pantries around town."