Little Free Pantry feeds the hungry
30,000 food items given out in first 10 months of food exchange
Margo Hudson has introduced a new way to help feed the hungry in Peterborough: she installed a Little Free Pantry in her front yard on Crescent St.
The concept is similar to the Little Free Libraries that have proliferated across the city (and country) where people exchange their books – except with the Little Free Pantry, you give and take food items.
Hudson puts in everything from canned goods to soap and toothbrushes in her house-shaped pantry – and it all goes fast.
She lives across from Little Lake on Crescent St. and co-owns Jo Anne’s Place health food stores with her husband, Paul (her mother, Jo Anne, started the business 42 years ago).
Hudson installed her Little Free Pantry – the first of its kind in Peterborough — nearly 10 months ago.
She estimates that since then, she’s given
away about 3,000 food items monthly – or 30,000 items in all.
“We can’t keep it full,” she said of the pantry.
Hudson’s pantry holds about 50 food items at once. She says she stocks it twice daily, since it takes no more than four hours to empty.
It’s mostly people on fixed incomes who use her pantry, she says, as well as students and some homeless people.
To keep the pantry full, Hudson bargain-hunts at grocery stores such as No Frills almost daily in search of items on sale for $1.
“You’d be amazed how many things you can find for a dollar,” she said Thursday afternoon as she stocked up the pantry.
Occasionally in the grocery check-out, shoppers will ask her why she’s loading up on sale items – and sometimes they will hand her cash when she explains.
“That blows my mind – it’s just so encouraging,” Hudson said.
The pantry had only been stocked for a few minutes on Thursday when a man came by with a plastic grocery bag and asked shyly, “Is this the free pantry?”
“Yes,” Hudson said, and invited him to help himself.
People aren’t afraid to come talk to Hudson as they use the pantry, she said. One family stopped by daily for awhile; the children told her they were hungry and thanked her.
Another young woman – a Trent University student – came by in the spring to thank Hudson for helping her mother (who’d occasionally used the pantry through the winter).
Little Free Pantries are a new trend that started in the United States.
The first one was installed in May 2016 outside a Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, Ark. Since then a website has been developed to show people how to build a pantry and keep it stocked (littlefreepantry.org).
Meanwhile there seem to be few Little Free Pantries in Canada: The Toronto Star reported on the first one in Toronto in late July.
Hudson said she’d like to see more pantries set up in Peterborough – or she’d accept help from anyone who’d like to support hers. Donations of food, cash or grocery gift cards are welcome, she said.
Just stop by 185 Crescent St. in Peterborough or visit her website at www.littlefreepantry.ca or email margoslittlefreepantry@gmail.com