Why Gluten Free Pantry?

People often ask why I talk about Celiac Disease so much. They ask about Gluten Free Pantry, without really understanding the purpose behind it all.

The truth is, I didn’t start with a clear vision of where I wanted to go. I didn’t fully think through the challenges I would face once I stepped onto this path.

It all started with illness and fear.

My first trip back home after being diagnosed with Celiac Disease was incredibly challenging. I was sick most days, and deeply saddened by how misunderstood I felt. I was afraid to order food anywhere. Afraid to trust the answers I was given, even when I asked questions carefully—questions meant to give me clarity and confidence when making food choices. Instead, I was met with uncertainty and confusion. It became clear that whether I spoke Tagalog or English, my concerns were lost in translation.

That experience changed something in me.

I realised that my struggle wasn’t unique. It was being shared quietly by so many others—people living not only with Celiac Disease, but with similar conditions—within Filipino households and communities where food is central, but understanding is often limited.

Gluten Free Pantry became my response. A bridge between illness and confidence. A space built from lived experience—from the anxiety of asking questions, the exhaustion of explaining yourself, and the heartbreak of feeling like a burden for simply needing safe food.

My mission is still taking shape, slowly and organically, but it will always be deeply personal: to make living with Celiac Disease less frightening, less isolating, and less misunderstood.

I want to help create spaces where people with Celiac Disease feel safe speaking up, and safe trusting the answers they receive. I want families to understand that gluten-free for a Celiac is not a preference—it is a medical necessity. And I want food providers to recognise that “close enough” is never enough when someone’s health is at stake.

This mission is about education, advocacy, and visibility. It’s about sharing knowledge so others don’t have to learn the hard way. It’s about normalising the hard questions, the label-checking, the double-checking—not as overreactions, but as acts of self-respect.

Gluten Free Pantry exists so no one has to feel the way I did on that first trip home—sick, scared, and unheard. It exists so that one day, asking if something is gluten-free won’t feel like asking for too much.

This is bigger than me. This is for every person who has ever left a table hungry because it felt safer than eating. For every parent learning how to protect their child. For every family trying to do better, even when they don’t fully understand yet.

This is the mission.
And this is only the beginning.

~Marge