Little Free Pantries -- People Helping Other People In Need, No Questions Asked
I wrote about Little Free Libraries as a way to build community and get books and ideas out there in "Good Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck."
Here's one of my favorite Little Free Libraries near me -- along with a photo of the "librarian": 
Well, contrary to the notion that government is the only way to look after our fellow citizens, Deborah Shaar writes at NPR:
There's a small-scale charity movement starting to take hold in neighborhoods across the country. Think of those "little free library" boxes, but with a twist: These are small pantries stocked with free food and personal care items like toothbrushes and diapers for people in need.They're found near churches, outside businesses and in front of homes. Maggie Ballard, who lives in Wichita, Kan., calls hers a "blessing box."
"I felt like this is something that I could do -- something small that you know, would benefit so many people so long as the word got out about it," she says.
The bright red box is about 2 feet wide and is mounted on a post near the street. Ballard and her son check on it every day and restock as needed.
"My son is 6 years old, so it gives him a little chore to kind of watch it and see what comes and goes and who comes and goes, and maybe learn a little lesson from it," she says.
There's a door on the front of the box but no lock, so anyone can take what they need 24-7. In the beginning, Ballard was providing all of the food. Then word spread and donations from the community starting pouring in.
...Similar "yard-based" food pantries have gone up across the country, in states like Oklahoma, Indiana, Kentucky, Florida and Minnesota. Much of it seems to trace back to Jessica McClard, who created what she calls the "little free pantry" in northwest Arkansas.
"The products that are stocked are put directly inside the pantry and turnover is in about 30 to 45 minutes," McClard says. "The frequency of the turnover and the fact that other sites in town are also turning over that frequently, it suggests to me that the need is tremendous."
All of the items inside the boxes are free and there are no forms to fill out. Those using the boxes come and go as they wish. And that sense of anonymity is something you won't find at traditional community food pantries.
Annie Holmquist notes at FEE:
Alexis de Tocqueville noticed this same community willingness to aid those in need when he traveled to America in the mid-1830s.
There's this notion that if government does nothing, nobody will.
I think people just need to get the idea that they can help and see a meaningful way like this to do it.
> There's this notion that if
> government does nothing,
> nobody will.
Yes! 🌟 Yes! 🌟 Yes! 🌟
But it's worse than that. A famous libertarian, I forget which, once complained that most people assume that when a libertarian doesn't want the government to do something, that he therefore doesn't want it done at all.
Over the course of my life, this presumption has expanded to include essentially human endeavor.
Go to dinner with friends: Count the topics of impersonal interest (matters greater than the romantic failures of mutual pals) which don't end with a plea for a change or creation in government regulation and authority. You will not trouble your thumb, let alone its neighboring fingers.
The word "we" now means almost nothing besides government. "We need to do something" doesn't mean religion, sexuality, art, enterprise or even rhetoric or persuasion. "We" means government, and that includes the money... Meaning a body of wealth which does not actually exist, and probably never will.
We might say people believe their policy preferences will get them to Heaven on someone else's dime, but I think whats happening in American culture in this century is far more reprehensible than that.
Crid at January 16, 2017 10:32 PM
Now watch the government send health inspectors in to find something wrong and close it down.
Patrick at January 17, 2017 3:26 AM
Will that be possible in California?
Sixclaws at January 17, 2017 5:10 AM
Patrick, that could happen; however, I'm thinking people put canned and packaged goods in there, not bowls of soup.
Amy Alkon at January 17, 2017 6:14 AM
Rural churches have done/do this almost continuously. Food banks, clothing drives, coats/shoes as specific events.
I do not know what large urban areas (Tyson's Corner, Dallas, etc.) do but I thought that the neighboring suburbs where the newer smaller churches were located covered those basics.
Perhaps this is just a "big city" WOW! thing. NBD here in the middle of no-where. Just a normal "Golden Rule" type of thing that is part our DNA.
Bob in Texas at January 17, 2017 6:17 AM
"...that most people assume that when a libertarian doesn't want the government to do something, that he therefore doesn't want it done at all."
This. Government becomes the default answer for everything, because it's easy and it dodges questions of personal responsibility. We know (well, most of us do) that we can't just assign specific other people to do things for us -- golden rule and all that. But affixing it to government de-personalizes the problem. There's a big difference between: "I want lunch; I demand that you give me a free one", and "I want lunch; government should give me one." The former will get your nose bloodied; the latter, a lot of people who consider themselves sage will nod and say, "Yes, that's fair", and they'll assume that government economic magic will take care of the matter. It's the intellectually and morally lazy response. Because the alternative comes down to "I want lunch. Damn, I guess that means that I'll have to do something myself."
Cousin Dave at January 17, 2017 6:21 AM
I do not know what large urban areas do but I thought that the neighboring suburbs where the newer smaller churches were located covered those basics.
Where I live, those groups lobby the local governments (city, county) to provide programs for those efforts. I really want to ask those pastors were Jesus commanded Caesar to provide for the widow, the sick, and the poor?
I R A Darth Aggie at January 17, 2017 8:39 AM
Where I live, those groups lobby the local governments
Course they do, if they can get the government to pay them to provide the service they can spend the donation money that once went their on things they want
lujlp at January 17, 2017 9:02 AM
Yes, the government does try to shut down such efforts. Those giving out sandwiches in florida in a park threatened with arrest. NYC wanting to regulate soup kitchens because not nutritious enough or something.
The idea that gov money is just out there somehow is so insane. I am middle class, not rich, but if you add up all the taxes (fed, state, real estate, sales tax, highway tolls) I pay almost 1/3 of my income in taxes. Waaaaaay too much.
The provision of help to people by people encourages spiritual development by the givers (ok, I know many don't believe in such things, but I do) as well as reminding those being helped that they are being helped by actual people. It is better.
cc at January 17, 2017 9:48 AM
"The frequency of the turnover and the fact that other sites in town are also turning over that frequently, it suggests to me that the need is tremendous."
It suggests to me that well-off people are going for free stuff, amongst all the poor.
mpetrie98 at January 17, 2017 10:55 AM
I used to run a food bank distribution point for St Mary's Food Bank.
By the time I was discharged from the Army I had little left, and spending six months trying to fix their fuck up of my pay didnt help
When I got involved in it I needed help and figured I could donate my time.
After a few moths the lady running our spot had to quite as he husband was dying of cancer.
When I took it over it served less than a dozens people once a month, you'd pay 10 or 15 dollars and get a box worth about 50 in retail supplies, like meat and dairy and a few loaves of bread.
Withing 5 months we were twice a month serving about 50 people. That is when the VFW no so kindly invited us to leave.
A church down the road offered us their parking lot, and as I got out the word and expanded the number of people being served they let us use their tables and let us store abandoned shopping carts in their back room, a few members even built and donated wheeled shelves for us to use.
By the time we were shut down, we were serving over 400 people every two weeks.
Same 10 or 15 dollars, but now we rated a semi, and with that came all sorts of fruit and vegetables.
On a low cargo day one could fill a shopping cart with all sorts of produce, breads and other stuff. On high cargo days you could fill THREE shopping carts with the food we were given to distribute.
We served so many people they even started a new distribution point about 15 miles down the road and asked me to show the new volunteers how I ran my point so effeicently
Then overnight the trucks stopped coming, St Marys claimed it had sent them out and no one was there, it sent them on the wrong weekend (or so they claimed) and failed to send them on the weekends we had scheduled
Turns out the federal government had offered so cash to local charities, and the rules for accepting that cash was they had to cover certain geographical radius from their offices.
Well St Marys was in central Phoenix, off I-10 and 51st Ave, we were in Apache Junction and East Mesa. And there was a Mesa based charity in west Mesa south of Hwy 60.
So in order to secure federal funds St Marys stopped servicing our area, the Mesa charity claimed it was, and they all got money.
Then the Mesa charity hired St Marys to act as a sub contractor for them to service the areas they could not because this smaller charity didnt even have cars to deliver food to anyone, let alone refrigerated semi trucks to drive stuff hundreds of miles away.
Of course by the time they got their shit together to start sending trucks out to us in a manner that still assured them their federal funds it was months later, and the majority of those we had been serving found other local church food banks, the church we were at refused to have anything to do with St Marys due to some indecent between their councilors and a truck that had shown up on a Sunday and started blaring a horn during their service.
They got someone else to take over the distribution, but by that time it was back down to a dozen or so people, meaning they only sent a pickup once a month and no fresh produce.
So, thats my story of government run charity
lujlp at January 17, 2017 12:05 PM
Even if they just give canned goods and packages of food, Amy, they still have health code requirements.
I'm very cynical. The government seems to want to step in and interfere even with the most well-meaning and innocuous efforts that people make.
For example, if you want unpasteurized milk (which would be healthier for you), the government simply can't let you make a mature decision and assume the risk. No, no! They have to decide for you that the risk is too great and they have to stop you.
Apple cider used to be a very tasty drink, till the pasteurization mandated by the government stepped in and took the edge off. Now it's just apple juice under another name.
Let's assume this idea will catch on and multiply. How much will these food pantries interfere with the revenue of local grocery stores? Because it will. Even the indigent, thanks to SNAP, can buy groceries. And if that happens, you can be sure that grocery stores will complain to the government, and the government will find some bogus reason to shut them all down, probably in the name of "public safety." Isn't that their excuse for most everything they do to screw us over?
And what's to stop someone like us, who presumably buy our own food, from going over and wanting to save a few bucks on food, and maybe picking up a few staple items?
Patrick at January 17, 2017 12:13 PM
Let's assume this idea will catch on and multiply. How much will these food pantries interfere with the revenue of local grocery stores? Because it will. Even the indigent, thanks to SNAP, can buy groceries. And if that happens, you can be sure that grocery stores will complain to the government, and the government will find some bogus reason to shut them all down, probably in the name of "public safety." Isn't that their excuse for most everything they do to screw us over?
Isnt this why most cities make it illegal to raise your own food?
lujlp at January 17, 2017 1:29 PM
That was the main underlying assumption of the Obama Administration. Remember his speech about how we as a society act through the government? And "you didn't build that?"
I'm hoping that SpaceX's soon-to-be-routine space flights and projected trip to Mars will help kill the all-too-common misperception that major endeavors require government coordination or direction to be undertaken at all.
All it will take is one kid with a peanut allergy getting hold of some peanut butter in the "little free pantry."
Conan the Grammarian at January 17, 2017 3:53 PM
I drive meals on wheels. Some of our clients are in independent living facilities. Others are in their own homes or apartments. In the latter case, if four neighbors took turns making lunch twice a week, we wouldn't be necessary.
Richard Aubrey at January 17, 2017 7:17 PM
This is arguably Amy's finest comment stack.
Calm down... You don't get a T-shirt or an Uber discount or anything.
Crid at January 17, 2017 10:36 PM
I like the shirts from teespring.com if that's acceptable. (no political messages please)
I would have said a Big Mac but I don't Amy hitting me on the head saying "Stupid". That's my wife's pleasure.
Bob in Texas at January 18, 2017 6:18 AM
""The products that are stocked are put directly inside the pantry and turnover is in about 30 to 45 minutes," McClard says. "The frequency of the turnover and the fact that other sites in town are also turning over that frequently, it suggests to me that the need is tremendous.""?
Wow, that's naîve.
What about the idea of "free food" escapes this guy, such that he doesn't realize people will take it just because it's free?
I got friends at work working charities. They've seen people claiming to be destitute - that are grossly fat - throw food delivered to them directly in the trash because it isn't what they wanted.
If you don't pay for that meal, the money can go to phone minutes. Or gas.
Radwaste at January 19, 2017 3:30 PM
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