Little pantries make big impact

Jenny Wilson has seen it all too often – neighbors struggling to feed their families while also struggling to get the help they need. 

Maybe the car won’t start, or they don’t have gas money to get to the store. Or they may not want to ask for help or even know help is available.

Wilson, executive director of Lamar County United Way in Paris, Texas, devised a simple approach — put food where people can easily get it. Let them take what they need without having to explain themselves to anyone.

Here are three examples:

1. Mini Pantries Kids Can Use 

When COVID shut down schools in March 2020, kids who depended on free breakfast and lunch suddenly had nowhere to go. 

Taking a cue from the Little Free Libraries — small, neighborhood book-sharing boxes — Wilson started placing small wooden pantries around town and stocking them with things kids could grab on their own: granola bars, pop tarts, applesauce. 

Even now that schools have reopened, the pantries matter in the county located on the Texas-Oklahoma border 100 miles northeast of Dallas, where one in four children live below the federal poverty level. 

Wilson says if a child is hungry and their parents can’t go to the traditional food pantry, that child still can't get help on their own.

“A child can access the pantry," Wilson says. “They can get their books from the Little Free Library next door and they can get food.”

One mom came to me. She said, the food pantry actually saved my little family's life." 

2. Focusing on the Unhoused

Lamar County has a large homeless population for a rural community of 25,000. Many people live in abandoned homes and won't go to the traditional food pantry because it requires giving your name, birth date, and ID.

Wilson shifted the focus of the mini pantries to serve them. Everything she stocks can be eaten without cooking including canned pasta with pull-tab tops, tuna packets, and crackers. 
In winter, she adds gloves, socks, and hand warmers. In summer, sunblock and bug spray. 
The pantries get emptied every day, which tells her they're being used.

“One mom came to me. She said, the food pantry actually saved my little family's life," Wilson said.

3. diapers are a draw

Wilson dragged an old bookshelf from the back of her office to the lobby of the United Way office and started stocking it with food. 

Now it gets emptied four or five times a day. 

In addition to food, the pantry offers diapers thanks to donations from Kimberly-Clark, which has a nearby manufacturing plant.

Wilson says young mothers come in for diapers and grab some food items while there.
“I stock it and walk away," Wilson says. “I have a bag of Walmart bags there. I say, grab a bag or two, fill up what you need. I have more in the back."