You know that moment when you get a bright idea and then actually go through with it? This is one of those. Right before the 2020 election, Henry and I decided to design and launch The Little Free Food Pantry Project. A food rescue, food recovery, and food-sharing experiment that became a neighborhood lifeline.
The concept was simple: a public kiosk where folks could donate or take shelf-stable food and hygiene products, no strings attached. My husband (a furniture designer and brilliant architect) built the pantry using one of his cool cabinet designs. We installed it, stocked it, and watched the magic happen. Within days, people were dropping off bags of groceries, grabbing what they needed, and proving that a Free Economy doesn’t just exist in utopian TED Talks—it can actually work IRL.
Did you have any funding?
Nope. It was a total DIY project. I funneled a chunk of my income from my design business into keeping the pantry stocked and, before long, local businesses and organizations jumped in.
ACME Bakery? Absolute MVPs—they donated tons of bread for two years. The Berkeley Food Pantry? Total legends. Even Berkeleyside wrote an article about us, making us the feel-good story of the week. That visibility led to a partnership with the Berkeley Free Clinic, an institution that’s been providing free medical services since 1969 because everyone deserves free healthcare.
We had a weekly ACME bread day, which felt like running an underground free bakery in Berkeley. All the bread was gone within a few hours. 50 people showed up, grabbed their free loaves, and walked away like they’d just won the lottery. I designed all the signage, made print materials, and kept the pantry stocked and cleaned daily. Was it work? Yeah. It was a lot of work. But it was also one of the most rewarding things that we have ever done together.
The pantry ran strong for three years, during which we both met more neighbors than we had in the previous decade. We want to do a project like this again, but it will probably be a Pop Up Food Pantry. We want to be of service to Seniors and people who are struggling with food insecurity because these days, food is so, so expensive.
Would you like to see some videos of our little pantry?
Or if you want to find out how much food we distributed in three years, it's all in The Story.