When another strict lockdown shut down her furniture shop in Quezon City, Ana Patricia Non sat inside and stewed. The Covid-19 pandemic has been brutal in the Philippines, leaving millions of Filipinos hungry and unemployed, including her own workers. Government aid has been too little and wasn’t reaching the people who needed it most, and the country’s already wide inequality gap was growing by the day.

Non came up with a simple plan. On April 14, she put a bamboo cart outside her store and stocked it with canned goods, rice, and vegetables. On a small cardboard sign, she wrote what would become the fundamental principles of a nationwide movement: “Give what you can, take only what you need.”

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