The community pantry project — which was highly popular and successful just less than a month ago — is now coined ตู้ร้างวางลืม (abandoned cabinet) as donations dry up and many cabinets stand empty and abandoned throughout the country.
Chachoengsao province in the northeastern region, for example, now has over 20 of its community pastries empty, according to local media reports.
Some locals have resorted to camping by the cabinets in hopes of receiving more donations and items from its regular givers.
One, Puangchompoo Boonkrut, a 44-year-old from Sa Kaeo province, travelled to Chachoengsao to help feed and raise her 3-year-old granddaughter when her daughter was suspended from her job due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Sitting on a mat by the cabinet in front of the province’s municipality office, Puangchompoo recalls being told by authorities that items will usually be donated at around 2 pm — when she was interviewed by Matichon, it was already 7 pm and the cabinet was still empty.
Authorities in Chachoengsao and surrounding provinces say that there have been little to no donations in the past weeks as the country eases from lockdown. Government efforts have now moved on from stimulus to job creation and economic development, leaving behind many of the poor still affected by the economic impacts of the pandemic.
