‘Buy Nothing’ generates hyperlocal gifting economy
PROGRAM CREATES HYPERLOCAL GIFTING ECONOMY
Corine Canoza has a guinea pig now. She wasn’t really expecting to ever have a guinea pig, but, hey. The opportunity presented itself, and her four kids are all animal lovers.
That guinea pig is only one thing Canoza has procured through the Buy Nothing Project, an international network of neighborhood groups that give things away for free.
No, really. It’s all free. There’s no trading of goods, no exchanging of money.
“I was interviewed one other time and the guy asked me ‘so, you get paid for this, right?’ ” Canoza said, laughing. “No, no I don’t. I get paid in smiles and gratitude.”
Canoza is the Facebook admin for her community group in the towns of Montville, Bozrah and Salem. The way Buy Nothing works is that people request to join a Facebook group in their area; once accepted, they can post “wishes” to see if anyone has the specific thing they need, or they can post “gifts” to give away the things they have.
Typically, membership is limited to one group. There are rules against the gifting of food or pets, but there’s also flexibility within groups. The guidelines are just ... guidelines. Groups can choose to follow them as they please.
Canoza’s group welcomes food and animal gifts. That’s how they got the guinea pig, for example — and a cat, and some chickens.
It’s really a family affair. Canoza said her kids often participate in drop offs and pick ups and go around the house to find things they don’t use anymore so they can gift those things in the group.
Canoza’s husband, Ryan, is also involved. They’re a military family; both Ryan and Corine have served. Corine is now a therapist and Ryan is a personnel specialist.
“Since I was born in the Philippines, I didn’t really have much growing up,” Ryan said. “So I actually got involved with Buy Nothing because I’m at a point in my life where I actually have abundance, so I’m able to donate what I can, anywhere from food to toys.”
Rebecca Rockefeller and Liesl Clark, two friends in Bainbridge Washington, started the Buy Nothing Project in 2013, looking to create a hyperlocal gifting group. Now, according to the project’s website, there are 5,500 groups in 44 countries.
In 2020, Clark and Rockefeller released a book called “The Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan,” which detailed how to build “a gift economy mindset.”
The giving out of abundance is a major mantra of the Buy Nothing movement.
Jennifer Heitzke is the Buy Nothing group admin for Monroe.
“It’s literally just gifting from your own abundance, what you have in your house or what you might have access to,” Heitzke said. Heitzke, a former kindergarten teacher, started her group last April, right at the beginning of the pandemic.
“We hear again and again that this for a lot of our members … really gave them a sense of hope during all this stuff,” she said.
“Because of the kindness, the generosity, the friendships we’ve built.”
Members of Heitzke’s group have built the kind of relationships where they know each other’s quirky interests. She collects bees, for example, while her co-admin collects farm decorations. Often, members will offer up those things knowing they would make great fits for certain collections.
Gifting doesn’t have to be just physical items either. It can come in the form of services or labor.
Heitzke wanted to make a quilt. She knows how to sew, but she was not an expert quilt square cutter. She made a wish in the group, and someone stepped up and offered to cut the quilt pieces for her.
“It can be the gift of time. It can be the gift of knowledge,” Heitzke said.
“We had people say, ‘Does anybody need help setting up routers for better internet?’ when the pandemic hit. So this guy was going around — with masks and being safe — saying ‘I can help you.’ It’s been incredible.”
When you think about the things people have done for other people, Heitzke said, not just material-wise but simply going out of their way to help other people in town who need help, “it kind of floors you.”
“With the feeling of community and support we have for each other, we’ve really become like a family.”
And every family needs one more guinea pig, right?