The micropantry movement

It all began three years ago in the midst of a global pandemic and it is responsible for feeding thousands of hungry Sangamon County families, but no one is quite sure how it all got started.

More than three dozen micropantries, or blessing boxes, have been created in Springfield neighborhoods and nearby communities. Folks with more than enough leave groceries for those in need in the wooden depots found near parks, schools and churches.

Both the giving and receiving is done quietly, anonymously. There is no formal structure or organization overseeing the collection or distribution of the food. Instead, individuals and dozens of small groups have joined to feed thousands.

“I don’t like the term ‘grassroots movement.’ A better term might be ‘organic,'” said Mary McDonald, a retired Springfield teacher involved in the endeavor.

“It began around the same time that the pandemic hit and the (Facebook page) Springfield Families Helping Families started. … We started to see patterns and themes with people who needed some help with food. People would just show up and put food on their doorstep. Well, that’s not the most sustainable way of trying to serve the population.”

McDonald said a married couple with some woodworking skills raised $12,000, purchased lumber and hardware and built blessing boxes in their garage.

“So, my sister Betty, myself and a half dozen other people started to connect with them to help see where some of these pantries might go. And then we started to help put food in them. This all happened around April or May of 2020.”

The creation of the pantries has been a godsend for Karen, a middle-aged woman who cares for an adult son with schizophrenia.

“When this all happened, I wasn’t signed up for SNAP yet,” she said, referring to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, often called food stamps, which helps low-income people purchase food. “And we would have just gone hungry some days without (the micropantries).”

And there is the rub.

The level of food insecurity in Sangamon County is high and existing government programs and charities are not able to fully meet the need, said Maj. Jeff Eddy, Salvation Army corps officer for Springfield.

For example, the traditional food pantry operated by the Salvation Army at 1600 E. Clear Lake Ave. only has enough food to allow individual families to visit once per calendar month. And the amount of nourishment typically taken is only enough for one or two days, he said.

Eddy said in no way do social service organizations, such as his, feel any competition with the micropantry movement. In fact, an advantage they hold over brick-and-mortar facilities is their proximity to those being served.

“I think it’s a great idea. One of the biggest issues that people can face when they’re in the position of needing food is what is often called a ‘food desert,’ where you can live in a bad place to access food. There might be food resources, but getting to those food resources can be difficult. One thing that I really appreciate about those micropantries is that it helps to bring food to the people instead of expecting them to go to the food,” he said.

Interestingly, some people who depend on the blessing boxes during lean times also donate food at other times. One of them is Karen.

“When I’ve got groceries that I don’t need, I go and put the groceries in the pantries. At other times, when times are tough, I depend on the pantries to have enough to eat,” she said.

Logistical challenges

The most persistent challenge facing a movement without designated leaders is coordinating and keeping all of the blessing boxes well-stocked, said Mindy McDonald, Mary McDonald’s sister-in-law, who travels among the various locations making sure they are maintained and stocked.

“Some people help fix things up or clean things. Some people do food drives. … I guess I’m more on the communication and distribution side of things,” she said.

Others have stepped forward as informal leaders. For example, Mary McDonald and her sister, Betty Ring, created a private Facebook group that enables those who serve as the point person for various blessing boxes to communicate their needs with one another. They sometimes receive monetary donations from businesses and purchase non-perishables in bulk, then store the items in McDonald’s garage until the supplies can be distributed to the various micropantries.

And people such as Ann Collins, a retiree who previously worked in marketing at SIU School of Medicine, have led food drives. For example, she helped the women’s organization, P.E.O., collect donations.

“In March 2021, we collected over 5,000 food items and almost $2,000 in cash during three hours,” she said. “We’re a sisterhood, and we don’t have a lot of community exposure, but we’re trying to get out there more. And this was something that everybody just attached themselves to and really wanted to do – we’ve done it three times now,” she said.

Collins also helps the Springfield Civic Garden Club, the American Association of University Women and other organizations who hold food drives distribute what is collected to the people who help out with the micropantries. She brings everything to a central location and uses the micropantry helpers Facebook page to let people know when and where to pick up items to restock the boxes around town.

No one knows just how many people the blessing boxes have helped or how much food has been distributed through them during the past three years.

But Jeb Brown, a Riverton businessman, believes in his small town more than $300,000 in food has been given away.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Brown and some other community leaders created a Kiwanis Club with an initial mission of feeding the blue-collar community, which suffered overwhelming unemployment during the hard lockdown.

The group established blessing boxes at Riverton High School and the Village Hall. Donated food was warehoused in a storage room at a liquor store owned by Brown’s family.

“We run stuff over (to the blessing boxes) a few times a day. People can take as much as they need or want and they don’t have to feel embarrassed. It’s just there for the taking.”

Like all of the volunteers interviewed, Brown said they have had few problems with people hoarding food.

“We had two or three people who were taking food from the blessing boxes and trying to sell it,” he said. “We put a camera up to monitor what was happening and then had the authorities talk to them and explain that wasn’t why the blessing boxes were there. That seemed to solve the problem.”

“We function totally on the honor system,” said Liz Pensoneau, a New Berlin volunteer who has worked with three New Berlin-area churches to operate two micropantries. She said it began as a Methodist endeavor, but the Lutheran and Baptist churches soon joined in. They have been able to get grants from the United Methodist denomination to combat community food insecurity issues. They also receive cash donations which enable her husband, the noted author Taylor Pensoneau, and others to purchase food for distribution.

Liz Pensoneau said during the winter, they found that glass jars of food froze and burst open while stored in a blessing box in a city park. They adapted by creating a second micropantry in a New Berlin laundromat.

“It’s open early in the morning until late at night. … (The owner) put in quite a bit of shelving. We looked at it at first and thought, ‘Wow, I don’t know if we can keep all these shelves filled with food or not.’ But now we divide it between the park and the laundromat.”

Learning empathy

Gina Romer, a teacher at Grant Middle School, has incorporated the blessing boxes into her classroom curriculum. She leads a program called School Within a School that helps students who, for various reasons, have difficulty learning in more traditional settings.

“One of the things that I try to do is to build empathy and compassion with the kids. And one way we do that is through service work. So, every Thursday morning, my kids will go to St. John’s Breadline to help serve breakfast or whatever work that needs to be done. And half of the kids will go to Kumler United Methodist Church and help with the food pantry over there.”

And within the school, her class is in charge of its micropantry.

“They love doing hands-on work. That’s a big part of my program here, making sure everyone has a job and has a role so they feel some sort of importance. We put different kids in charge of collecting the cans and stocking the food pantry. And it just snowballed into where my students also now are the ones who are in charge when we do our drive, where it’s put out to the whole school. … My students are the ones that go to the front door and the back door and collect the cans as the kids come in.

“And then they’re in charge of organizing everything. We store the food in a closet, and once a week we pull the food items out of the closet and the kids go and stock the pantry.”

Need persists

Leslie Sgro is on the board of the St. Martin de Porres Center, which distributes food and household items several days a week at 1725 South Grand Ave. East, and has long been concerned about hunger in the community.

“There are a lot of charitable people in this community. And although this effort sprung up out of the need during the pandemic, it has become clear to all of us that the need persists, post-pandemic.

“In March, SNAP changed the food stamp program, and we have, at St. Martin’s, seen a doubling of the usage of our services, which are free. People can come and receive what they need, no matter if they’re one person or a family of eight. The amount of need has just exploded,” she said.

During the pandemic, Congress temporarily boosted Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits by 15%, but in March, benefits returned to their pre-pandemic level, despite inflation that has reduced consumers’ buying power at the grocery store. From 2021 to 2022, food prices increased about 11%, compared to 2% in prior years. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, low-income households spend an average of 30% of their income on food costs.

Springfield resident Susan Lahr is disabled and dependent on the micropantries for food. She said she has noticed that some blessing boxes are more regularly depleted than others. This means that she often finds herself traveling to various locations to have enough to eat.

Mindy McDonald said blessing boxes affiliated with a church or other organizations are more likely to be fully stocked. Some boxes, such as the one at Lanphier High School, do not have a sponsoring group so are depleted quickly.

Maj. Eddy, with the Salvation Army, added that inflation is a significant factor in food insecurity.

“The biggest cause for insecurity right now is just grocery prices. Even when you make a decent wage, sometimes it’s hard to fill your cupboards,” he said.

Scott Reeder, a staff writer for Illinois Times, can be reached at sreeder@illinoistimes.com.

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Springfield-area micropantries

• 22 S. Fifth St. (on sidewalk, across from Mansion/Y Block)

• First Presbyterian Church: 321 S. Seventh St. (in lot off Capitol)

• Legacy Theatre: 101 E. Lawrence Ave.

• Springfield High School: 101 S. Lewis St. (in the Commons lot off Washington, by the shed)

• Douglas Avenue United Methodist: 501 S. Douglas Ave. (by entrance off Illini Ct.)

• Graham Elementary: 900 W. Edwards (NW corner of parking lot off Cook between MacArthur Blvd. and State St.)

• Grant Middle School:1800 W. Monroe, on the Stange St. (east) side

• Jerome United Methodist:1570 Reed Ave.

• St. John’s Lutheran: 2477 W. Washington St.

• Peace Lutheran: 2800 W. Jefferson (by door)

• St. Agnes School: 251 N. Amos (at Amos/Columbia entrance)

• Knox Knolls: 2251 W. Monroe St.

• Hope Presbyterian Church (Colony West): 2211 Wabash Ave.

• Parkway Christian Church: 2700 Lindbergh Blvd.

• Boys & Girls Club: 300 S. 15th St.

• Feitshans Elementary.: 1101 S. 15th St. (inside front gate; available only M-F when gate is open)

• Iles Elementary: 1700 S. 15th (15th & Laurel)

• Washington Middle School: 2300 E. Jackson

• Springfield Southeast High School: 2350 E. Ash St. (behind school, off Ash)

• Youth Service Bureau: 2901 Normandy Rd.

• Holy Family Inclusive Catholic Community: 2939 Stanton St.

• Fifth Street Renaissance/SARA Center: 1315 N. Fifth St. (on porch of building)

• Word & Spirit Worship Center: 2105 E. Reservoir St. (under carport off Wheeler)

• Church of the Living God: 430 N. Milton
(on Carpenter side)

• Lanphier High School: 1300 N. 11th St. (pantry is by stairs on Converse St.)

• Ridgely Elementary: 2040 N. Eighth St. (by entrance)

• Lakeside Christian Church: 225 Toronto Rd. (Donation hours: M-F 9 a.m.-noon)

• Cotton Hill United Methodist Church: 5931 N. Cotton Hill Rd.

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Micropantries near Springfield

Southern View
• Carman and Garrett (in driveway) Neuhoff Media: 3055 S. Fourth St.

Chatham
Bhind VFW Hall (new location 214 W. Chestnut); access from Church St.
• Chatham Area Public Library: 600 E. Spruce

New Berlin
• Corbett Park (W. Elm and S. Cedar)
• Alamo Laundry: 716 E. Illinois (shelf inside business)

Petersburg
• County Market: 500 E. Sangamon (shelf inside store to the right)

Virden
• Pitman Hall (First Baptist Church): 157 W. Jackson
• Produce-sharing cart located on the southwest corner of the town square

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Needed items:

• Canned vegetables and fruits
• Pasta
• Canned spaghetti sauce
• Granola bars
• Canned beef ravioli
• Peanut butter and jelly
• Cereal
• Beef sticks and jerky
• Instant mashed potatoes
• Oatmeal
• Pancake mix and syrup
• Bread
• Cans of tuna or chicken
• Tortilla and taco shells
• Condiments
• Stuffing mix
• Juice boxes
• Vegetable oil
• Flour
• Individual rolls of toilet paper
• Feminine hygiene products
• Shampoo
• Body wash
• Deodorant
• Toothpaste
• Toothbrushes
• Dish soap
• Laundry detergent

Unwanted items:
• Refrigerated or frozen foods
• Glass jars or bottles
• Things that are not food or hygiene-related,
including clothing, toys and household items

If you or your organization would like to make a monetary donation or host a food drive to benefit the micropantries, contact Mary McDonald at marymmed323@gmail.com

This article appears in The micropantry movement.