The Little Free Pantry at Summer Memorial Lutheran Church. Pictured are some of the people who made it possible, left to right: Norma Price, Cam Kasten, Jessica Beam, Robert Kopp.
Andrew Wigger | The Newberry Observer
Cam Kasten, of Troop 316, helps stock the Little Free Pantry.
Andrew Wigger | The Newberry Observer
This Little Free Pantry is located at Summer Memorial Lutheran Church, on Milligan Street.
Andrew Wigger | The Newberry Observer
NEWBERRY — The Newberry County Young Professionals (NYP), Boy Scout Troop 316 and Robert Kopp, with Thrivent, recently worked together to help with food insecurities in Newberry by creating a Little Free Pantry.
Jessica Beam, a member of the NYP Board of Directors, said the idea for the Little Free Pantry came from their annual H.U.G.S Drive.
“We do our H.U.G.S Drive, which goes back to students in our community, and we were trying to come up with projects that help everyone in our community. We noticed a need due to people in Newberry County with food insecurities, especially during COVID. We wanted to reach out and do something that would impact people of all ages, to stop food insecurities and household insecurities,” Beam said.
The idea for a Little Free Pantry came to Beam while she was doing online research, that is when she found their website, littlefreepantry.org.
“Robbie had a huge part of it at our disc golf (which was a fundraising event), that is how it got started. Cam came into play and actually built it, Summer Memorial Lutheran Church Council took on a huge role and gave us a location to place it in the Mollohon Community,” Beam said.
Cam Kasten, a member of Troop 316, helped build the Little Free Pantry as his Eagle Scout project. He said he came across it when he was looking for a service project that would benefit the community.
“I talked to Scoutmaster Chad (Hawkins) and Assistant Scoutmaster Trent (Fowler), we came to the agreement to do a Little Free Pantry. They sent me Ms. Beam’s number and I got in touch, and agreed to build this one,” he said.” I assembled one, built it, painted it. It would not have happened without the help of my fellow Boy Scouts.”
As previously mentioned, this Little Free Pantry took a lot of people and organizations to create.
“The Newberry County Young Professionals Board of Directors, President Sami Snyder had a big role in supporting us and helping the idea come to fruition. Gene Shealy helped take it to the church council and get the plaque on for us and made sure it was done. Special thanks also to Boy Scout Troop 316 and Hamm’s Hardware,” Beam said.
Kopp, who helped support this Little Free Pantry, said at Thrivent they believe investments are more than money.
“It is important to participate in the community. I’m encouraging my clients to use their Action Teams on projects like this one through March 15. It is a great way to mobilize around your passion and lead a team of dedicated volunteers,” Kopp said.
Norma Price, a member of Summer Memorial Lutheran Church, said the church was more than happy to have the pantry.
“Gene Shealy, a member of council, brought this idea to us and we jumped on it,” she said.
Price added that the church had a similar idea about four years ago, when a congregation member saw a pantry in Charleston. However, plans for a pantry were put on hold due to COVID.
“When this was brought to us, we could not turn it down,” she said.
The motto for Little Free Pantry is, “give what you can, take what you need,” according to Beam.
“Come in, take what you need at any time, if you are able to give, come and put back into the box. If you see something missing, that is a great opportunity to go and get what your community members need. All ages are welcome to take and are welcome to give,” she said.
This will also hopefully be the first of many Little Free Pantries in Newberry County. If you would like more information on giving a box or putting a box somewhere in your community, you can reach out to Beam at newberrycountyyp@gmail.com or on NYP’s Facebook and Instagram.
“If someone would like to sponsor a box, we are more than happy for monetary donations. Those can be given to the Newberry County Chamber of Commerce or contact us through our email,” Beam said.
If you are interested in filling the Little Free Pantry with items, you can fill it with easy-cook, non-perishable food items and hygiene products. If the box is full, the donations can be left with the church.
Summer Memorial Lutheran Church is located at 1609 Milligan Street, Newberry.
Reach Andrew Wigger @ 803-768-3122 or on Twitter @TheNBOnews.