Community
Rotary club helps feed the hungry with Little Free Pantry
A few weeks ago, Cheri Johnson encountered a mom with several children outside the Key Peninsula Bischoff Food Bank, hoping to pick up something for her family for dinner.
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Unfortunately, the food bank had closed. The mother didn’t know how she would be able to feed her children that night.
Johnson was able to point the mom in the direction of a Little Free Pantry that her Rotary Club of Gig Harbor Midday had recently installed nearby. The mother was able to pick up food for her family there.
People in Purdy now have the same option after the Rotary club installed a new Little Free Pantry on Friday, April 29, at Peninsula Life Church, on state Highway 302 just north of 144th St NW. It’s the club’s fourth Little Free Pantry. A fifth is ready to go, as soon as the club picks finds the best location for it.
How it works
Hundreds of Little Free Pantries are in use around the country. They operate on the simplest possible principle: Take what you need, leave what you can.
The idea is to have a zero-barrier food source for anyone who needs help, augmenting the critical services provided by local food banks.
Rotarians carry a new Little Food Pantry to its new home at Peninsula Life Church in Purdy on Friday, April 29, 2022. Vince Dice
The pantries are placed with the cooperation of the physical hosts. Rotarians volunteer to serve as “stewards” for each location, visiting two to three times per week to restock the pantries.
The Gig Harbor club is spending about $300 per week restocking the four locations, according to Rotarian Lonna Calas.
“On the Key Peninsula, as people have gotten used to where they are, people are contributing,” Calas said. She expects the same will be true at the new pantry in Purdy, especially given how visible the location is.
Location, location, location
Hundreds of people drive past the Peninsula Life Church location every day, making it a good spot for a Little Free Pantry. That’s true both for people who contribute to it and for people who pick up food there.
There also is reportedly a trail nearby that runs between Burley and Purdy. For people walking on that trail, who may be experiencing food or housing insecurity, it will be easy to access the Peninsula Life Church location.
Rotarians stock the new Little Food Pantry at Peninsula Life Church in Purdy on Friday, April 29. Vince Dice
Location is critical. The pantry needs to be in a safe, well-lit location and have the support of nearby residents and businesses.
The Little Free Pantry movement started in 2016 in Arkansas, where Jessica McClard placed a wooden box atop a post and filled it with food, toiletries and other essentials. The items are available anytime to anyone, no questions asked.
Plans for making the simple structures are available online. Littlefreepantry.org offers numerous tips for how to operate them and where to locate them, and notes that Good Samaritan laws generally protect people who are operating free pantries in good faith from liability issues.
What’s inside
The pantries are stocked with all kinds of food items, generally things that are nonperishable and easy to prepare. Canned vegetables and proteins are always a good choice, Little Free Pantry organizers say.
Toiletries and paper items are important, too. Depending on season, items that may spoil in the heat or burst in the freezing cold can be problematic.
Rotarians have gotten some indication of what’s popular already as they restock the existing pantries. It’s given them a heartbreaking indication of who in the community needs help.
“If I put out things like boxed milk, cereal and cookies, they are gone the next day,” Johnson said. It’s an indication that many children are relying on the Little Free Pantries.
