A NEW ‘Neighbourhood Pantry’ has been inspiring community spirit in Stuarts Point during the statewide lockdown, with locals enthusiastically giving and taking contributions of everything from non-perishable pantry staples, toilet paper and sanitary pads to gourmet sweet treats, boxes of fresh fruit and a pot plant.

For now, the Pantry is a wooden box that 26-year-old local Briana Earle knocked up using what she had in her shed, propped up by a chair from her back deck.

She placed it on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Marine Parade on Wednesday, August 18, with a sign that says ‘Neighborhood Pantry: Give what you can, take what you need’ and filled it with what she had in her cupboards at the time: a couple of packets of crackers and noodles, tinned soup and corn, tubs of tomato paste and applesauce, and some fancy handmade soap she’d bought at a local market.

The community has taken it from there, with the high-turnover of items appearing and disappearing from the pantry showing how locals have embraced it.

Within days, the only original item remaining was a packet of noodles.

Earle said the pantry was inspired by an idea she saw on Instagram about six months ago, and she was spurred to put it into action by concern for people doing it tough during the lockdown.

“Everyone needs to know that we’re all in this together, especially the younger generation, because they’re just copping it really hard at the minute,” she said, adding that she hoped it would be helpful for anyone struggling to get access to groceries at the moment.

“They can just duck down and there might be something there.

“It’s not necessarily always gonna be what you need, but it might be something to get you through.

“Whether it’s a packet of noodles or toilet paper.”

But the pantry isn’t just about supporting people in need.

“It’s a place for swapping, it’s a place for sharing.

“It’s a place for not letting things go to waste as well,” Earle said.

In addition to being a space where those who are able to can donate newly bought items others might need, she hopes it will provide an easy way for people to share anything they have an abundance of from their garden or farm, or just to find a new home for things from the pantry that might otherwise go to waste.

“It’s not for one particular group of people.

“It should be an organic space that we can all share and just get some community spirit back.

“I think it’s so important for the kids, for everyone, to feel like we’re all the same. We’re all equal,” she said.

“My biggest concern was that, if it’s aimed at a particular group of people, how would that make them feel, as opposed to it being just there for everybody?”

Anyone who wants to get involved can help spread the word, make donations, take what they want or need and just “keep an eye on it”.

“I don’t necessarily want to be the person that mans it or anything; I think as a community we can all do that together,” Earle said, adding that she’d love it if someone could help create a pantry that protects its contents from the weather and animals.

“I hope that we can build something that’s sustainable that will be able to stay there forever,” she said.

“It’s such a simple little thing.

“It’s just the most simple gesture, but it’s really changing people’s views.”

 

By Brooke LEWIS

 

The contents of a new ‘Neighbourhood Pantry’ in Stuarts Point have changed continuously as locals take and leave contributions.