The Little Pandemic Pantry

So the weekend before last I finally got my Little Pandemic Pantry up and running. Back in April I was reading about how people in my neighborhood had taken their lending libraries and made pantries out of them. I had always wanted my own little lending library, and feeling stuck at home and helpless to do much against COVID-19 personally, I thought this might be a way to contribute to people who need it who are out of work and have little money. So it took a little while. I ordered the box off of Etsy (cute huh?) but it took while to get the base built w/the help of my handyman Jordan. Naturally with COVID-19 he didn't want to wait in a line of 50 people to get into Home Depot, but when we found you could order ahead and just pick up it up, that sped things up again. So Jordan built the base to my specifications to fit this box and it's actually anchored to the ground with 8" screw ground anchors, so I can take the box with me when I move. So far it's been cleaned out almost once (though no one seems to be interested in the can of black beans!). Mostly I give away staples I think people may need, as well as hand sanitizer (goes quickly!). This weekend I may add individually bagged face masks and next week I'll attach a metal holder for gloves on the side, so people can be safer when reaching in and taking things home.

One of the best parts is I asked Melissa who runs Doggonetags on Etsy to make a little plate for me that says:

"Take what you need but leave the rest,

Sharing with everyone is the best!"

And she not only made the plate but donated it to the cause! Definitely check her site out DoggoneTags as well as Glyn's site MountainMakerCO who made the library box. If you need a good handyman in the SF East Bay, let me hook you up with Jordan Caroll, he's great.

From what I've read, we are still in for the worst of it ahead, COVID-19 is not slowing down in the us, so hopefully in some small way this will help people out.