With the cost of living continuing to rise and tragedies occurring everywhere, all the time, it is more important than ever that people in our communities are able to rely on each other to make life work. This is the understanding that staff at Gan Teva at Ner Shalom Early Learning Center were operating under when we decided to create and care for the Little Free Pantry.

Stationed on Spriggs Rd straight across from Hylton High School, our Little Free Pantry had its opening date in late February of 2025. In only three months the pantry has been able to empower us to distribute over 1,000 food, hygiene, and household items to people in our community. As well as to partner with local organizations like H.U.G.S. Woodbridge to distribute our resources even more widely. We stock our pantry with a variety of items including food, personal hygiene, home cleaning supplies, and baby care items. Our community has shown us a desire for something more expansive through anonymous donations of clothing, card games, books, and toys. Through these donations and speaking with our community, we have considered the idea of expanding our "Free Pantry" into a "Free Store" with expanded space and a wider variety of items for community members to access.

On principle, the pantry has no cameras, requests no monetary donations from shoppers, and has no item limits. Our goal is to create a comfortable opportunity for people to access whatever items are helpful to them without fear of being judged, and to provide the feeling of security and abundance when we work together as a community. While we stand firmly by these values and have no plans to put additional security or surveillance measures in place, our pressure free process does come with consequences.

On May 25th, 2025, someone took the mini fridge which served as a major portion of our pantry storage, as well as our plastic bins which we use to protect items from water damage. These "clear outs" are an unfortunate part of projects like ours, but are known and anticipated when doing this type of work. They often happen because of misunderstandings about the purposes of items in a public space (like our fridge, which could be mistaken for being abandoned if you don't read the signs!) or as a reaction to scarcity based fear. If you've been struggling to feed yourself and run across an unattended fridge full of food, it's understandable that you'd have the urge to take it and run.

To live up to our goals of creating joy and stability for our community, the caretakers of the pantry are taking this situation in stride as an opportunity to act on our dreams of having an expanded Free Store. The biggest hurdle in achieving this will be funding a waterproof shed to house our storage and shelving. Our hope is to bring in a 30-80 sq ft. shed which will contain our current drawers, a new fridge, and open shelving for new items. Not only will a shed allow us to stock more items at a time, it will also better protect items from harsh weather and establish the store in a way that discourages future appliance snatching.

New sheds in this size range are priced between $350-$800. We have set our fundraising goal (as of 5/26/2025) at $600 to allow us to comfortably afford a high quality shed as prices raise and lower throughout the season. Or less comfortably afford a decent shed if we do not meet our goal. Should we reach or exceed our fundraising goal, additional funds will be diverted to extra shelving and then to items to distribute.

We want to thank you in advance for any support you can give. Whether it be donating, sharing on social media, telling a friend, or even visiting our pantry for a snack, you are making Woodbridge a better place to be. Every human being deserves a place to go and have their needs met when things aren't quite working out. We love you, we want you to be happy, healthy, and fulfilled. Have a wonderful day!

Little Free Store Start-Up

Whoops! Someone took the fridge! Let's get a shed!

Team Members