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

[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.