"A few years ago, I put up a Little Free Pantry at our place. I joked that it wasn't attached to.."

[demmiblue]

A few years ago, I put up a Little Free Pantry at our place. I joked that it wasn't attached to any organization or agency - just attached to our fence. The sign said, "We're all in this together," long before the pandemic made that phrase a thing. And then our family moved. 1/4

To keep the Little Free Pantry centrally located, the Optimists agreed to host it. The need was great, and the community really got behind our Little Free Pantry, ensuring that anyone in Paris could have access to food at any time. 2/4

Local moms took over organizing the pantry. Businesses, groups & individuals continue to stock the pantry with groceries, baked goods, veggies from their gardens, etc. It is a beautiful thing that our community does together. My neighbours even donated a new custom cupboard. 3/4

Today, I stopped by and saw the beautiful new sign for the first time, and it made me cry. Sometimes, we start small things and set them free - and later, we get to see how they've grown and the difference they've made. It's ok to start small. 4/4

Link to tweet

[CrispyQ]

1. It's a nice idea, but from the posts I read on Nextdoor,

in my neighborhood, someone would take everything. The Ring videos are amazing.

Last week, someone's Ring caught a car driving slowly through the neighborhood & then the passenger door popped open, someone rans to the front door of the Ring house, grabbed a large package & by the time he got back to the car, the trunk of the car was open, he tossed the box, got in the car, & they drove off. There are similar videos every time i log on which is once a week.

[Diamond_Dog]

3. Sadly, that was my first thought, too.

In this country, someone would take everything. And maybe even vandalize the little structure.

[druidity33]

4. I take it...

you don't live in Paris?



K&R

[CrispyQ]

6. No. I live in a well-off blue pocket in a purple state.

But to say the area is well-off means it's that way for some but certainly not everyone. There is very little affordable housing in the area. We've priced most service workers out of the communities where they work unless they want to rent a house with four or more other people.

[Lucky Luciano]

17. Yup. Chicago has some of the shittiest teens that vandalized something just like this.

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/vandalism-leads-to-shutdown-of-south-loop-community-refrigerator/

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Young vandals are blamed for the closing of a South Loop community refrigerator.

A sign posted on the Prairie Avenue Love Fridge, at 2023 S. Prairie Ave., says unaccompanied children and teens are dumping out food donations on the sidewalk.

Organizers decided to shut down the location, because it is frustrating for neighbors and potentially dangerous to pets. They are directing users to nearby fridges.

[CrispyQ]

18. I don't know what to say about that.

Are the kids bored cuz there's no place to go, nothing to do? Or are they just unsupervised little jerks with parents who don't care as long as the kids aren't bothering them? IDK. But when we were kids, even if we were bored we would never have done something like this. This is just mean. What kind of kid does this & goes home feeling good about themself? I guess the kind of kid whose parents—& society in general—don't value community.

[Evolve Dammit]

21. Sadly there are "toilet heads" that abuse everything. MAGATS is too kind.

[bedazzled]

23. People took the stuff I left for the postman drive last time

Had to hide more in the unlocked delivery boxes and leave a note in my mailbox

I live in condos with centralized mailroom

[usedtobedemgurl]

2. I did something like this at the start of the pandemic.

I had food, toys and beauty supplies. Not a single thing was taken, not even a bat of soap!! I gave up after about 2 weeks.

[Earth-shine]

5. I'll bet you didn't have toilet paper there.

Just joking, of course.

People went nuts for it at the start of the pandemic. One either had too little or was hoarding too much.

In the post-apocalyptic world, toilet paper will be worth more than currency.

[usedtobedemgurl]

8. You would lose that bet.

I put signs out. I used a big box yo display everything. If you were on a diet, there were Slimfast treats. If you were a child, there was candy. There was soap, shampoo and toilet paper. I cannot remember if I included toothpaste. Not sure if people thought it was a joke or what.

[Maraya1969]

29. I think that was a wonderful thing you did.

So it didn't work out; your kindness is obvious and I appreciate that.

[markodochartaigh]

12. During the height of the pandemic

Costco had a big sign saying that they would no longer accept returns on toilet paper. I had no idea that you could return toilet paper. All my life I have just been flushing it. Money down the drain!

[Earth-shine]

13. For a time, the "pandemic currency" of toilet paper was devalued.

Supply and demand. People couldn't get it. Then, when available, they overbought.

Better too much than not enough.

[CrispyQ]

19. Maybe they were afraid.

Early in the pandemic people didn't know how Covid was spread. Someone on DU posted a video of a guy showing how to safely bring your groceries into your house & it included wiping every product down with a Clorox wipe, which of course you couldn't get cuz there'd been a run on them.

[wnylib]

20. I remember that video. After watching it,

I got worried because I had not been wiping down my items. Feared that I might have exposed myself to infection.

[Hugin]

28. I wiped certain items down before the pandemic...

And I continue to wipe them off now.

I lived next to a distribution plant for a few years while I was going to school. The things I saw going on over there convinced me that I didn’t want those things anywhere near the food I was going to eat until I cleaned them off.

[CrispyQ]

31. Oh yes, even in the grocery store I worked in we saw gross stuff.

Cases where a can had busted open at some point, leaked all over the cans near it creating a moldy mess. The worst was a can a Vienna sausages. OMG, I almost puked it smelled so bad. We didn't have time to take things to the back room & wash them, we just wiped them off & stocked them.

[Hugin]

32. +10 bonus points for using the word "gross".

[usedtobedemgurl]

30. That is a possibility.

Of course, they could have gone home, gotten gloves and come back. After they take stuff, they could clean it. I just wanted to help people. Ended up giving the food portion to a food bank. I guess I still helped people but not as directly.

[Hugin]

27. At the start of the pandemic...

I went through a variety of methods to spread my good fortune.

Like you, I initially tried a grab box that went unused. I realized that I was staying in a semi-urban oasis area where the people in the immediate vicinity really didn’t need much.

I finally settled on having much of my groceries delivered with a nice cash tip. Which seemed to serve a few purposes. The people making the deliveries had cash and access to the things that they needed by being in the stores. Also, it served as a social outlet for them when they made the delivery. I was always out there when they brought the order and all they wanted to do was talk and talk. I made some good friends during the period among them. People I probably never would have met otherwise.

The downside, of course, being that my efforts had little impact on those who were unable to become delivery people. That was mitigated some by the fact that most of the delivery people had families or were caregivers at home.

[MontanaMama]

7. There's a free little pantry near where our family business

is located. I tuck food items in there often. It’s a block away from the food bank so I know it’s regularly used. Sometimes it’s packed and sometimes it’s mostly empty.

[iluvtennis]

9. So cool, love this.

[Joinfortmill]

10. Love this.

[Blue Owl]

11. K&R

[Texasgal]

14. We have one in our neighborhood.

It started during the lockdowns of the pandemic. It was small but flourishing!

It became so popular, that the neighbors chipped in and built a "shed" You can now walk into it. It has shelving and bins. They even added a chest freezer and a smaller sized refrigerator.

[thatcrowwoman]

15. Our local library has a little free pantry in the vestibule.

It’s only available when the library is open, but the library is open everyday. Keeps the donations out of the weather, be it sweltering or precipitating.

I’ll have some cherry tomatoes and yellow squash from our garden to drop off later this week.
Like she said, “We’re all in this together.”
🕊thatcrowwoman

[Thunderbeast]

16. Our neighborhood has a FREE PUZZLE LIBRARY

It is never trashed or abused.

[Evolve Dammit]

22. Nice job Kari!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

24. Great post and thanks for posting the content, since Twitter is blocking many people. . . nt

[ShazzieB]

25. I wish there was something like this in my area.

I would definitely contribute.

Before anyone suggests it, I can't start one myself. I live in a large apartment complex. The management would never allow something like this. (Please don't tell me to ask them. I know what I'm talking about.)

[DFW]

26. Many cities in Germany have them

It’s called “Tafel” and it was originally meant to help out low-income families. The first few waves of post-war immigrants respected the rules and purpose of the Tafel, so there was still usually enough to go around. More recently, though, some members of some groups just look upon the Tafel as a gesture of supreme naïve stupidity, and take everything that is there, either selling their loot in their own community or discarding whatever they don’t immediately use. This has led to some Tafels closing down, and others needing to be policed when they set up. In my town, this is on Saturday mornings. The city organizers of the Tafel are angry and frustrated at having to have town government supervision);, but the people for whom the Tafel was meant will go hungry if they don’t, and that is not an option.

[AllaN01Bear]

33. reminds me of the little free library movement.