It’s sort of like a tiny library that you may see stationed in someone’s front yard, but instead of books, this particular wood-framed pantry is stocked with nonperishable food items.
Paige Spaulding, a Lehi mother and youth group adviser in her church group, said the idea came to her last month during the recent government shutdown, as many Utahns faced uncertainty about their November SNAP benefits.
While the shutdown is over, and the holidays are in view, the season doesn’t eliminate the reality of the 1 in 7 Utahns, including 1 in 6 children, who don’t know where their next meal will come from.
“I was trying to think, how can I teach the youth that we need to help our community,” she said. “We could donate to a food bank, but I wanted to have the youth be able to see something more permanent or more tangible.”
After seeing some examples on Facebook of what people in other communities are doing, Paige Spaulding said setting up a local food bank where people can take and give as they see fit seemed like a good project.
“Sometimes, getting to a food bank can be difficult as well, and so if it’s right here in our backyard, then maybe it’s a little bit better for our community,” she explained.
Spaulding’s yard sits right along Lehi’s Main Street, so the mini food bank is easily visible and accessible to people driving by.
Although Spaulding said she organized the project, the youth in the community did all of the work.
The teens distributed bags to neighbors throughout the neighborhood for people to fill with food items.
Emory Spaulding, Paige’s daughter and a high school senior, was one of many of the youth who participated.
“I mostly helped set up the shelves and deliver the bags for people to put stuff in,” Emory Spaulding said. “When people did fill up the bags, they also put extra bags out, so we had, like, multiple bags from a lot of the houses.”
Their plan was to have it up and ready for people to use by Thursday, Nov. 20, so they collected donations for a little under a week, beginning on Nov. 16.
“We probably had between 30 to 50 bags of groceries delivered from our neighborhood,” Paige Spaulding told KSL.com.
The youth group put all of the shelves together and stocked them full with canned goods, oatmeal and peanut butter, among other items, for people to access what they need.
And it is seemingly being utilized; the morning after the neighborhood food bank first went up, it was needing to be restocked as one of the shelves was nearly empty.
Natalie Spaulding, Paige’s older daughter, who is preparing to attend BYU-Idaho, said she was tagged in to help with the effort after arriving back home from being out of town.
“I’ve helped a lot with organizing it and making sure that it’s in good condition — and so it’s really awesome to just see how much gets actually taken,” Natalie Spaulding said.
James Avery, a seventh grader who lives just a few houses away from the Spauldings, said it brought him joy to help give back to the community in this way.
“It doesn’t matter if you need something or if you have something that you’re willing to give, just come stop by, and there’s no judgment,” he said.
The group hopes to keep the pantry up for as long as there is a need, and they welcome people to drop off donations as well.
Aside from food, Emory Spaulding said people have also donated items for children. She mentioned a young girl who spotted an advent calendar that she liked and was able to take it.
“It means a lot to the parents when there’s food on here. But when they bring their little kids, and their little kid finds something on here that they want, it’s definitely really special to see that,” Emory Spaulding said.
She added that the effort has also inspired some of her friends to want to do a similar service project.
Ultimately, the gesture is one way of linking those with the means to spare unused food and goods to those in need.
Paige Spaulding said the group is grateful to serve their community amid the season of giving.
“I really just wanted to teach the youth that their efforts are worth it and that they can make a difference in their community,” she said.