Your Community Pantry – is now open and ready to serve the public in front of the church

The “Take Some, Share Some” motto this summer 2021 has been the universal message between our “Grow Some Good” and “Your Community Pantry” projects. It signifies giving what you can, and taking what you need. Everyone in the community is welcome to donate any spare pantry items. Everyone in the community is welcome to take any items that they need. The idea is that food flows in and flows out of the community pantry, as does the wind.

Thank you to everyone that showed up to the pantry unveiling on August 13, 2021. it was a pretty busy afternoon. We gave out forty plus Kit Kat ice cream bars and all of our egg salad sandwiches, and some pantry items given by patrons. Good vibes all around.

The Journey

When the pantry project was first mentioned I knew that this was what I wanted to do. I previously dabbled with woodworking in high school so I knew I had some idea of what it would take to build. The first blessing in this journey was meeting Dan and seeing that he had a shelf that would act as the base of the project. The building process was to re-purpose the shelf and I started planning and researching materials; plywood, food-safe materials, paints, dimensions, roofing tiles, and hinges, etc. Then there was also some planning as to where to put the pantry and how to keep it stable and mounted without breaking anything in front of the church. Ultimately, Dan was ten steps ahead, the mastermind whom I didn’t know I had until I met him. It became clear; we measure, cut and attach plywood for inner walls, cut and place boards as side panelling, slanted roof with shingles, attach the door. It all came together beautifully. We found a closet door from the ReStore for relatively cheap, and also got some great, waterproof, deck boards donated from one of our neighbours, Katja.

The execution of the build was around twenty-five hours plus those that Dan put in between the six Saturdays we allotted for the project starting in mid-May 2021. We definitely would not have been able to meet our deadline of the end of July / early August 2021 without Dan putting in extra time. I really appreciate it. The hardest part of the project was definitely moving the pantry, because of its height and weight, as well as its roof that protrudes off the side. It helped to have lots of hands to make it happen.

Acknowledgements

I thank Dan foremost for helping with the majority of the cutting and guidance throughout the project, Katja for a perfect amount of donated lumber in a time when it is rising in price, the ReStore for having a door that perfectly matches the dimensions of the build, Marlena for helping with pantry signage and design, Adam and Maliha for helping with the reveal on August 13, 2021 with social media recordings and photos, Sarah for being the first donator to the pantry, Barb for the KitKat ice cream bars at the reveal, Larry and Patricia for the egg salad sandwiches, and the finance committee for the budget. I hope that the pantry will find great use at the church now and in the future.

Thank you for reading,
Johnny