Take what you need, leave what you can: Little free pantries help the hungry

When the government shutdown resulted in the suspension of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that provides food assistance to low-income families, members of Carl Sandburg Middle School’s National Junior Honor Society got to work collecting donations for Faith Feeds, a Palatine food pantry.

“What my students are doing is truly giving back to the community they live in,” said club sponsor Dana Foley, an English teacher at the Rolling Meadows school.

Foley went a step further. She cleared the books off a shelf in the Little Free Library book exchange she installed outside her Arlington Heights home five years ago and replaced them with cans of soup. She added a sign encouraging passersby to help themselves.

Within 24 hours, the shelf was filled with more donations, Foley said. In fact, it was overfilled, which prompted donors to deposit surplus staples on her front porch, some of which Foley delivered to Faith Feeds.

Restocking the pantry daily, she intends to maintain it through the holidays.

“We're focusing on single-serve items that are easy to open,” she said, along with all-in-one items like single servings of macaroni and cheese and cereal in a cup with powdered milk.

Increased food insecurity prompted many stewards to incorporate pantries into their little libraries, Foley said. In addition to food, some are collecting new books for holiday book drives.

“I have yet to meet someone who isn't doing something now,” she said, adding, “You can't love books if you're hungry.”

Take what you need, leave what you can

“An increase of unhoused people coming to the library and asking for resources for food banks,” inspired the installation of the community cabinet located inside the St. Charles Public Library, according to Adult Services Manager Amy Vidlak Girmscheid.

Built by Aiden Miller as an Eagle Scout project, the pantry opened in February and is available during library hours.

“It's a new way we can serve our community,” she said. “People living paycheck to paycheck can use a little extra help.”

Donations from individuals and organizations — which also include pet food and hygiene products — increased after SNAP benefits ended. Contributing organizations include St. Charles Unit District 303, which earlier this month delivered proceeds from its food drive.

The generosity moved Girmscheid to tears.

“I still cry when I think about the response we've gotten from this community, how people have come together and lifted each other up in these uncertain times,” she said. “It reminds me why I like to work with the public.”

St. Charles isn't the only library assisting patrons with food insecurity.

Two years ago, then 9-year-old Wheeling resident Maya Schaab and her father built a free pantry at the Indian Trails Public Library District as her annual birthday service project. Maya and her family stocked it initially, said Indian Trails communications and development manager Jen Schmidt. Over the last year, other residents stepped in to help.

“It really is a community effort,” said Schmidt. “Residents stock it themselves. It's a grass-roots effort.”

In the wake of the SNAP cuts, Maya's Little Free Pantry has been “stocked to the gills,” she said.

To that end, the library is hosting a food drive through Nov. 24.

“For so many people in the village, the library is their third space,” said Schmidt, referring to those places people gather outside of home and work. “It's natural for the community here to rally around this.”

In December 2023, about six months after Schaab's pantry opened at Indian Trails, the Schaumburg Township District Library followed suit and established one at its main location. Two more are scheduled to open within a few months at the Hanover Park and Hoffman Estates branches, said marketing and communications director Andrea Lublink.

Keeping the faith

As with the St. Charles Library, an Eagle Scout project led to the establishment of a little free pantry at the First Presbyterian Church of Arlington Heights about seven years ago, according to Pastor Chris Spotts.

He said it’s part of the church's longstanding outreach toward people who are homeless and hungry, and a reason he accepted the position of senior pastor last September.

“It's part of the DNA,” he said of the church's efforts, which include an Advent food drive to collect $2,500 and 1,000 pounds of food for local food banks.

Church members keep the pantry stocked with snack foods and occasionally toiletries, he said.

Toiletries, personal hygiene products, baby wipes, hand sanitizer, laundry detergent and sunscreen are among the items available at the pantry of St. John United Church of Christ in Arlington Heights.

Jennifer Borrell and her husband, Jay Virchow, helped spearhead and maintain the pantry effort in 2021, with significant help from the congregation. She said it was conceived as an extension of the church's Public Action to Deliver Shelter, or PADS, ministry to provide shelter and food to people who are homeless.

Members of the congregation stock the pantry about twice a week. A self-described “data-driven person,” Borrell keeps track of the items that most often need replenishing. Tube socks, deodorant and baby wipes are among the most popular along with toothpaste and toothbrushes, soap, travel-size hygiene products and laundry pods.

“What's nice about the little free pantry is that it's available 24/7,” Borrell said. “It's there for anyone who needs it, whenever they need it.”