Kitchen bayanihan

It is heartwarming to see that people in the streets are getting help from the sector that is expected to offer it: The Archdiocese of Cebu has been feeding thousands of indigent itinerants through its Saint Martha’s kitchen.

Most beneficiaries of the weekend feeding program at the Catholic Charities compound beside the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral share a similar story—coming from a rural area to this city in search of a better life.

Seventy-year-old Virginia Barric sifts through our refuse for items that she can salvage and sell to earn some money. The income is not much of a difference from what she earned as a laundrywoman in Toledo City.

Thanks to the good Samaritans who supply the ingredients for the hot meals at Saint Martha’s, Virginia and others like her can get by on weekends. While we cannot help but wonder where these people scrounge for food on other days we find it timely to call on more golden-hearted people to feed the hungry in the streets.

There is wisdom in arguing that it is better for us to teach people to fish than to feed them, the better to help them feed themselves but the growing number of destitute people in our streets is a phenomenon that merits our compassionate response rather than hackneyed rationalizations that do not erase our responsibility for our neighbors.

We salute persons like Ryan Gedorio, 30 of Algeria, Cebu who serves as a volunteer cook for this archdiocesan program. His kind are gifts who remind those who have the resources that they, being more privileged, owe so much more to the needy.

Gedorio is also a sign of the truth that one need not be wealthy to uplift the lot of those who suffer. One only needs genuine compassion and the enthusiasm to share what one can.

The years have shown us that the government’s efforts are not enough to address the plight of starving street dwellers. Even as we urge the Department of Social Welfare and Development with its allied agencies to do more, we must encourage private individuals to roll up their sleeves and do the dirty work, so to speak, of caring.

A few generous individuals and a handful of cooks have been filling the stomachs of up to 300 people on weekends. How much more would find their hunger pangs assuaged if more people reach out and share meals with them?