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THE LITTLE FREE FOOD PANTRY IN BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
A History of the Project
2020 - 2023
You know when when you get an idea and then actually go through with it? This was one of those projects. 6 months into the pandemic, Henry and I decided to launch The Little Free Food Pantry. It would be all about neighbors helping neighbors. A kiosk to drop off food, and take the food you need.
Remember when the cost of food skyrocketed because of all of the supply chain problems? Creating a way for people to get food 24 hours a day is a massive act of community service. If you want to talk with us about starting a pantry, just reach out! We ran it for 3 years and shut it down in 2023.
Our pantry become a site for food rescue and food recovery and many, many neighbors would tell us that it really helped them. Now in 2025 we have a government that is going to be cutting SNAP benefits, so projects like this are vital.
The concept is simple: it's an outdoor public kiosk where people can donate or take shelf-stable food and hygiene products, no strings attached.
My husband (a furniture designer and brilliant architect) offered a Totem Cabinet which is one of his designs for the first pantry. We installed it, stocked it daily, 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.
Whenever we were cleaning it or stocking it, we would meet people who were dropping off food or who had made a trip on their bike or walked there to see if there was any food. This was what I loved about this project the most. Connection and community.
Did you have any funding?
Nope. It was a total DIY project. I donated some of my income from my web design business into keeping the pantry stocked and before long, local food pantries found out about what we were doing and offered to help us by giving us food.
We developed a relationship with ACME Bakery. They are absolute MVPs—they donated thousands of rounds, baguettes foccaccia, and rolls for two years. I wrote to them and told them about the project and they approved us as recipients.
The Berkeley Food Pantry would give us what was left over on Fridays and we would distribute it over the weekend. 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, right?!
The weekly ACME bread day was a big highlight for many of the people who knew about it. (IYKYK) It felt like running an underground free bakery!! Dog walkers, and nannies with babies and people who lived just down the street would show up over the course of 4 hours, grabbed their free loaves, and walked away like they’d just won the lottery. It felt good to be a reliable food source.
The pantry ran strong for three years, during which we both met more neighbors than we had in the previous decade. It was very creative and required a lot of my attention so part of why I decided to stop was I need to focus on a personal creative project which is 98% done!!
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 Henry and I have ever done together.
We want to continue be of service to anyone who are struggling with food insecurity because food is still so expensive. Especially the basics like eggs, butter, olive oil and coffee. It was so amazing to distibute so much beautiful FOOD over the years.
Would you like to see some videos of our little pantry?
Want more details about running a food pantry?
Check out our Story.