Eddie Mccollum of Ascension Lutheran Church works to construct the Little Free Pantry that now sits adjacent to the church’s parking lot. (Contributed photo)Ascension Lutheran Church is on a mission to feed local residents in body, mind and soul.
On May 23, the church installed the area’s very first Little Free Pantry and a new Little Free Library in a space adjacent to its parking lot.
Little Free Pantries, also known as “Blessing Boxes,” are miniature food pantries available to anyone in need of food 24 hours a day. Conceived by an Arkansas woman in 2016, each pantry across the country is stocked with nonperishable food items, from oatmeal and cereal to canned vegetables and meat, and made available with no questions asked or requirements to prove need.
Little Free Libraries follow the same format, essentially functioning as lending libraries encouraging citizens to take a book or leave a book free of charge.
So far, the food pantry has had a positive response, said Pastor Jeff Crim, who oversees the two new installments. On average, about three people a day drop by to take out food items, he said, and each time, they seem to take only what they need, mindful of others in the community.
“It really does seem that people are trying to leave something behind for the next person,” Crim said.
Using donations given to the church, Crim has made it his job to refill the pantry each time supplies run low, which he said is about once a day. But he is not the only one. Church and community members alike have shown their support by leaving food items and sweet treats in the pantry – sometimes filling it until it overflows.
Crim said church members first saw the need for a project like the pantry after Superior Creek Lodge on North Mack Smith Road was shut down in 2015, displacing almost 1,500 people and 300 families from the extended-stay motel. Ascension worked with East Ridge United Methodist Church to provide shelter to those suddenly left without a home, and in the process, members became more aware of the large homeless population in the immediate area.
“It really brought it home to our church community how many folks there were that were homeless, living in poverty and in need of food within not a horribly large distance from the church,” said Crim. “I think we just didn’t understand the size of the community of people in need until that happened.”
The members brainstormed ideas to address the need, and eventually agreed on building the pantry, which they hoped would fill in any gaps between larger programs like the Chattanooga Community Kitchen and the East Ridge Food Pantry without detracting from them.
“We don’t have a huge goal other than for somebody who’s in need of a can of food to be able to come to our pantry box and find one,” Crim said.
A lifelong advocate of literacy, Crim added the Little Free Library to the plans to address a secondary need to those in financial crisis.
“I figured folks who can’t afford food probably cant afford books either,” he said.
The concept for the miniature library was derived from a Wisconsin-based nonprofit of the same name, which has helped install more than 5,000 weatherproof kiosks in 70 countries since it began in 2009.
Each library operates on an honor-based system, meaning anyone can borrow a book without a library card so long as they return it or replace it with another book. The system ensures there is an ever-changing selection of reading materials for locals to choose from during each visit.
So far, Ascension’s library has been stocked with books for children and young adults. It joins more than five other Little Free Libraries scattered throughout the Chattanooga area.
In time, Crim hopes the church’s Little Free Pantry and Little Free Library will make the spot a meeting place for the community. The church has already placed a bench between the two boxes and started doing some landscaping around them to make the space more welcoming.
“I would hope that this little spot would become a little place of hospitality for our neighborhood,” Crim said. “A place where someone who wants to read a book finds a place to sit and read one, and a place where people meet each other and conversations happen.”
Email Myron Madden at mmadden@timesfreepress.com