I have got myself involved in something that has become a permanent and passionate part of my life. For several years, I’ve participated in NZ’s community pantry movement. Most people probably aren’t even aware that, in towns all over the country, we have community pantries. Sometimes, they go by the name pātaka kai.
I discovered the Temuka one (a trolley just inside the library entrance) and the Darfield one (a cupboard in the community garden) during my years between being made redundant from my last job and going on the pension. The people who chose to donate surplus veges and fruit from their gardens and older food items from their pantries helped to put food on my table.
The pantries are based on the concept of “Take what you need, give what you can.” This is about as grassroots a movement as you can get and it’s purely of the people, by the people, for the people. No government involvement or requests for taxpayers’ money. Let’s face it, the state will never have enough money to do everything that needs to be done, but every person who chooses to can do something small to make a difference within their community.
Even if you think you’re in an area where people aren’t in need, remember that those in need can be invisible. Many don’t want to go cap in hand to ask for help but may be okay about the unsupervised, no-questions-asked opportunities that their local pantry may offer as a result of the kindness of others. If people receive some food this way, it can free up some of their money for other necessities.
Our Darfield pantry has grown in recent years. In summer, locals pick and deliver surplus fruit off their trees, resulting in good amounts making it through the pantry and into people’s kitchens, tummies and freezers. We receive eggs every week, and some people specifically grow veges like pumpkins, potatoes and zucchinis for the pantry.
I enjoy donating a packet of pasta and a jar of pasta sauce every week in the belief that a single person or a couple could feed themselves main meals for several days by adding whatever veges are available and protein, some of which might also have come from the pantry.
We no longer have a garden centre in Darfield and some people don’t have transport to get to one. So whenever I’m buying vege seeds or vege plants for my garden, I buy extras to donate. Others donate food plants from their gardens. They are always eagerly received and it feels good to enable people to grow and have control over at least some of their own food.
If you don’t already have a community pantry in your area, please consider setting one up. You just need a location. It could be a trolley in your local library or in the porch of a community hall or church. Let people know it’s there and start encouraging people to donate food.
And if you can afford to, buy an extra item at the supermarket or from the garden centre to donate regularly. The system does require regular donations (not money) to keep going. We may not be able to do much about what’s going on in the rest of the world or a lot of the problems facing this country, but this is a simple thing that a lot of us can do to help people in our own community.
Judith Yeatman is a writer living in Darfield, Canterbury. She is an enthusiastic participant, not a community pantry organiser.
