I live on a very busy corner in South Arlington, VA in a house we refer to as The Big Yellow House. Arlington is home of the Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery, and if you stood on my porch and counted for a few hours, what seems like a whole of buses.
I know that most home buyers would shy away from purchasing a home on one busy street, let alone TWO busy streets! But we invested in this house in 1999 and have never looked back. We love the constant motion, noise, and activity that surrounds us here.
About 10 years ago I started doing what I call “projects” outside our home. Projects vary in nature and scope, but they have a unifying intent: to provide a prompt for community engagement. You see, I am the type of person who could NEVER walk by a prompt without engaging! I see a hopscotch board drawn with chalk by a neighborhood child while I am out on a walk? I PLAY hopscotch! I see a painted rock hidden in a flower planter?? I pick it up! I notice the first rose of the season has bloomed? You can bet I bend over and take a long whiff. I walk through my world looking through a lens of engagement and activity. And I don’t know that I realized how unique that perspective was before I began my “projects”.
It turns out that many (if not most) people seem to navigate the world in a bubble. To me, it is as if they have blinders on. They can walk by a prompt, a blatantly OBVIOUS prompt, and either ignore it or not see it. It used to baffle me so much!! I would set up a project and be super excited about it. For example, I hung around 75 brightly colored Easter eggs (which I call “Springtime eggs” because we live in a diverse community, and I want to be respectful of all) on our chain link fence. Each egg hung from a silk ribbon, at varying heights. Big signs encouraged passersby to choose an egg and take it. I would stand inside the house and peek out the front door and see people WALK BY WITHOUT STOPPING. Some didn’t glance at the eggs swaying in the breeze, others peered out of the corner of their eye but kept moving. Or, for another project, I hung a digital camera on our front gate with signs that explained people could use it to take photos of things that represented INSPIRATION, BEAUTY, and JOY to them. Once again, I was incredulous at how many people could pass by such an interesting experiment and choose not to engage. HOW??
I view these projects as community art. Community building. Social experiments. They bring me joy and energy and I really value doing them.
So, when I started the Little Yellow Free Pantry project on March 6, 2021, I think my lens on it was that it was like all of the other projects I have hosted: it would be a chance to engage the community, and even help a few people out.
What I did NOT foresee was that this little pantry, designed to mimic Little Free Libraries, made from an Ikea storage cube, would add a dimension to my life that I hadn’t realized was missing.
The Little Yellow Free Pantry has re-energized me. It has introduced me to new neighbors. It has given me a renewed purpose in life. It has helped me set higher goals for my work. And it has brought a community together.
All with a can of tuna!
Of course, it is much more than tuna, but tuna is a definite pantry staple.
When I started the pantry, I used Kindness Activist funds to buy materials to make it and fill it with food the first time (a $217.64 investment). Then I introduced the pantry to the community, and the rest is history.
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| Opening Day of the Little Yellow Free Pantry |
I LOVE THE PANTRY. I treat it like a little shop. I love to fill it and organize it. I have a system – not sure if frequent visitors notice it or not. The top shelf is typically canned goods of all types. The bottom shelf can hold taller items – so shampoo, cake mixes, oils, etc. go there. Rice and dried beans have homes on the bottom shelf, too. There is a special box with note cards and a pen inside so that visitors can write down items they need and their contact information, and on top of that box I make sure there are plenty of snacks. And I always try to keep 2 beverages in the pantry so thirsty passersby can get a drink. I am careful to make it PRETTY – all labels facing front, so that visitors can see what is on offer and so that it looks respectable. My partner David even installed motion detector LIGHTS that come on when people open the doors after dark, so they can see what is available.
And the items in the pantry must be GOOD. My theory is, if I wouldn’t use it, I won’t put it in the pantry. That doesn’t mean everything has to be things I enjoy eating, but nothing can be expired or junky looking. I firmly believe that pantry visitors should have the same experience at the pantry as I do at the grocery store – enjoy looking at the choices and making their selections.
It is always special when I see a visitor stop at the pantry. I love going outside and chatting with them. The first couple of weeks I was a bit overeager and would rush out to talk to visitors, sometimes I probably scared them! But now I let them peruse a little, then I pop out and greet them. I asked what else they would like and explain that I have more food inside that I can bring out to them.
And the food inside the house… Oh, there is food inside the house!! There is a bin marked for donations on our front porch, and just about every day there are items left in it. I carry them down to our basement in the “pantry storage area”, which keeps growing and growing… Whenever friends who have not seen the pantry storage area see it the first time, their eyes get really big.
Because what I have learned is that you cannot keep a little pantry FULL without having a lot of food on hand. So, there are big shelving units in the basement stocked with items – peanut butter, jelly, cake mixes, tea, cereal, toiletries, pasta, canned meats, vegetables, and fruit… All items are sorted by type of food so that it is easy to find what is needed to put outside. When I started this project I had no concept of how much food would be needed to maintain it. The pantry itself looks tiny – but keeping it full takes a LOT of food.
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| Peanut Butter is a pantry staple |
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| Canned vegetables |
I have also realized that people depend on the pantry now for nourishment. There are regulars who come and “shop”, and many people drop in when they need to. And because they depend on it, I can’t let it go unattended. That means when I go on vacation and am out of town, I need to find other people to maintain it. That’s where the PANTRY CREW comes in! The crew is a group of very sweet, trusted friends who take turns filling the pantry up when I am not around to do it. Some of them have children that they bring along to assist. I love that – those kids are learning kindness firsthand! And they are great helpers. In fact, two of them (and their mother) came over this week and split 40 pounds of donated rice into smaller seal bags for distribution.
And not only neighbors are generous with their pantry donations. A local pie shop has donated gift certificates for PIE, and the local Trader Joe’s has been very, very supportive in donating much needed items! What I find so amazing is that I didn’t even ASK Trader Joe’s to help. Mind you, I love Trader Joe’s and that is where we do the vast majority of our grocery shopping, but THEY reached out to ME when they saw the pantry and asked if they could do anything to help!
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| Trader Joe's Clarendon's most recent donations! Crackers, honey, coffee, and almond milk |
So yes, this project turned into more than I ever imagined. It takes much more work than I expected. It takes loads of time that I didn’t anticipate. But even more so, it brings more joy, focus, and clarity to my life than I have had in a while. It give me, and the community that supports it, a purpose. We have something tangible to rally around.
All because of cans of tuna…
As of today, February 18, 2022, the pantry is low on:
-
Canned meat
(tuna, Spam, chicken, salmon, oysters, any meat)
-
Jelly
-
Cookies
-
Maseca (flour used
to make tortillas)
-
Feminine hygiene products
-
Canned fruit
-
Bags of sugar
- Grocery store gift cards are always welcome
Thank you to all who have supported
this effort. The people who help stock
when I am gone. The people who
donate. The people who visit and get
food. And the people who honk and wave
when they see me outside filling the pantry.
And maybe a can of tuna can't change the world. But it CAN change a mindset. And a dinner. And a community.
And that’s good enough for me.
To read about the camera project mentioned in this piece, go to: Inspiration, Beauty, and Joy
To read a previous piece about the Little Yellow Free Pantry, visit: Day 20
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