Cristina Toledo Cabanayan Packs Food for Prison Inmates
Posted on Monday, 1 February 2016
Cristina
Toledo Cabanayan
Packs
Food for Prison Inmates
By Apolinario Villalobos
I came to learn of the advocacy of Cristina
Toledo Cabanayan when I took my brunch in their roadside food stall along Camba
St. in Divisoria….she packs food for some inmates in Manila City Jail. It all
started when her son (name withheld upon request) who was detained asked her to
include his newly found friends, in the lunch pack that she prepares for him
during visitation days. Her son found out that his friends have not been
receiving visitors for a very long time, hence, depended on the meager and
strictly- budgeted meals served by the jail administration.
Soonest as she heard their stories, she did
not hesitate to pack meals taken from what she sells along Camba St. of Divisoria
district for her son and his friends. The pack meals are brought by her
grandsons to their father who is thirty six years old. The day I took my
brunch, a Saturday, was a visitation day for the Manila City Jail inmates.
I learned, too, that Cristina’s altruism
also benefited Lagring, who was adopted by her family when she found her living
in the area alone, after having been abandoned by her family. Cristina nurtured
Lagring back to her health, and today she helps in the operation of the
roadside eatery by taking charge of everything that needs to be washed – eating
utensils, pots, pans, etc. Though she is still noticeably skinny, she is back
to her former spritely self. I found her washing pots and plates when I dropped
by the food stall.
The husband of Cristina is a retiree with a
frail health, making it necessary for him to stay at home, where he does the easy
chores while the rest of the members are doing their share in the food stall.
Miracle, Cristina’s daughter, though with a family of her own, helps her mother
run the small business. The cooperation among the family members spared
Cristina from hiring extra hands which is what food stall owners normally do.
The food stall is the source of the
family’s livelihood, the blessing from which they also share with others in the
best way that they can afford, but despite such, they are able to make both
ends meet, as a proverb goes. They do not even know for how long they can hold
on to their roadside space that accommodates their pushcart laden with foods. Despite
such apprehension, Cristina, a typical Filipino, is fatalistic though in a
positive way. She grew up in the same area and had her own share of ordeals
that made her tough as a person.
Discussion