Take what you need, share what you can

It’s hard to believe that five years have passed since COVID shook our world. So much has changed since then, but one lasting impact from those days still remains steady in our little neighborhood.

It’s the most local food pantry I’ve ever seen and it has been going strong since the early days of COVID. It began with just four simple wood boxes stacked together with a handmade sign that says “Take what you need, share what you can.”?

It was started by Lisa, who saw people struggling with basic needs and found a way to help. She calls it a giving shelf, which is just the perfect name for it. In the early days, it was a mix of food, basic items and books but has morphed into just food now.

Neighbors keep it stocked with everything from canned foods and peanut butter to toilet paper and tea — and within hours the food is gone. She and her son tend to it and she says it’s been an absolute blessing for her.

There are regulars, like the ice cream man who comes once a day and gets some things for his family for dinner. A homeless man brings what he can’t use and takes only what he needs. Multiple people have told Lisa that this is how they have fed their families or helped them get through a tough week at the end of the month.?

“We have met the most generous neighbors and my son gets to see that hoarding resources for ourselves isn’t a healthy way to live and through generosity of finances, items, time and a listening ear you can make the world a tiny bit brighter for others,” says Lisa, who is a youth pastor and part of a Joint Youth Ministry.

My own family has made many donations to this hyper-local resource. One time while my husband was dropping off items an elderly woman pulled up in an old car. She hesitated and asked, “What is this? I don’t understand how this works.”?

My husband explained that it’s just to help our neighbors and that she was welcome to take whatever she needed. She paused, then asked, “But who keeps it stocked with food?”

“The neighborhood!” my husband replied, smiling.

A small smile crept onto her face, her eyes lightened a little and she simply said, “Thank you.”

The thanks go to Lisa, her son and all the neighbors who help maintain this much-needed resource, making a real difference in our little corner of the world.