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Tallahassee Residents Address Food Insecurity With Little Free Food Pantries

Three women surround a small food pantry
Regan McCarthy
/
WFSU News

In an effort to help those who struggle with food insecurity the latest Leadership Tallahassee class has created what it calls “Little Free Food Pantries.” Kevin Forsthoefel is a member of the group.

“The idea is very much like those Little Free Libraries in that persons who have items to give can give to the help shelves and persons that are in need of personal care items or non-perishable food items can come and take from the box if they are in need,” Forsthoefel says.

Forsthoefel says similar ideas have seen success in other communities.

“And that’s sort of the same thing that we want to start. We want to start this movement or network of boxes. We talked to another young woman in Wichita, Kansas who put one in her front yard about a year ago, stocked it the first time and has never had to stock it again because she’s just overthrown by people donating items to the box,” Forsthoefel says.

The boxes are available for use at the Jack McLean Community Center, Big Bend Cares, Tallahassee Fire Station Number 12 and the Leon County Veteran Services Building.The Leadership Tallahassee team says Leon County currently ranks third out of 67 counties for food insecurity.

Follow @Regan_McCarthy

Regan McCarthy is the Assistant News Director for WFSU Public Media. Before coming to Tallahassee, Regan graduated with honors from Indiana University’s Ernie Pyle School of Journalism. She worked for several years for NPR member station WFIU in Bloomington, Ind., where she covered local and state government and produced feature and community stories.

Phone: (850) 645-6090 | rmccarthy@fsu.edu

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