The Utah ‘mini pantry movement’ can help your neighbors and bring ‘a lot of joy.’ Here’s how it works.

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A can of beans and a tub of freeze-dried broccoli were all that remained this Halloween on the shelves of a little free food pantry that sits across from Liberty Park on 500 East in Salt Lake City.

“This was full this morning,” said Nicole Vallieres, who manages the small pantry outside her home. It wasn’t yet noon Friday as she placed a box of Annie’s macaroni and cheese on its bottom shelf.

Her restock came as the status of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (or SNAP) remains in relative limbo. President Donald Trump’s administration has said it will partially fund food stamps amid the government shutdown, which has left many federal workers without paychecks. At least 33,000 federal workers live in Utah, and about 169,300 Utah adults and children rely on SNAP to help buy food each month.

But even when food stamps were a guarantee, Vallieres said keeping their tiny front-yard pantry stocked has been a “constant” effort since she and her husband joined the Little Free Pantry Movement five years ago.

“We estimated that we go through over 50 pounds of food and toiletries every day,” Vallieres said. “The pantry will empty within an hour, and sometimes much faster.”

The movement is made up of a national network of small, individually run pantries stocked with free food and other essentials, often set up at peoples’ homes, like little free libraries. It’s neither an organization nor a nonprofit but a “crowdsourced solution” to local needs, its website states.

The mini pantry movement has grown since it started in 2016, with at least 15 little pantries across Utah, according to a searchable map. There’s one as far east as Vernal, and in southern Utah, one each in Toquerville and La Verkin. Vallieres said theirs was the first in Salt Lake City.

“We’re super passionate about food security, and we’re glad that we can help out the neighborhood,” Vallieres said.

But she acknowledged the makeshift service is “not going to solve the [SNAP] problem.”

“It’s not a solution, but it definitely fills a niche, because it’s available to people 24/7,” she said. “It’s a great emergency food source if people don’t have access to other ways of getting food.”

‘This is mutual aid’

At another little free pantry in Salt Lake City’s Glendale neighborhood, Luna Lowell keeps an array of free “harm-reduction” supplies stocked in addition to food.

That includes items like condoms, dental dams, fentanyl test strips, pregnancy tests and other hygiene essentials, Lowell said.

“Harm reduction is a really scary [term], especially here in Utah,” Lowell said. “We don’t really involve that on a governmental level or a policy level, and so, that’s why it’s so incredibly important to provide these items.”

She said children often stop by the pantry to grab food on their way home from school, and she’s seen quite a few unsheltered people use the pantry as well.

Lowell and her friends stock many of the items, but most actually come from other donors, she said — many who struggle with hunger themselves.

“This is mutual aid,” Lowell said. “This is about the community who is caring for the community. … When the government shuts down, the only impact this has is that people might need [the pantry items] more.”

It’s similar in West Valley City, where Demi Dubach maintains a little free pantry outside her home, complete with dog treats and birthday cake kits. Dubach is a teacher in the Jordan School District.

Many of the donors who help stock her pantry share items from larger food pantries that they find their families don’t need, including extra food from the Bishops’ Storehouse, Dubach said, referring to food pantries that are run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“It’s often people that are needing the help are also adding to it,” she said.

Amid the government shutdown, she argued communities “can’t rely on politicians to prioritize our needs.”

“We should be taking care of our people,” Dubach said.

Lowell added that the movement is one way to “continue to build out structures of support.”

“There’s so much strength in community, and I think that’s really important to remember, even before something big like this hits,” she said.

No ‘substitute’ for SNAP

Neil Rickard, a child nutrition advocate with the nonprofit Utahns Against Hunger, said as long as SNAP benefits are halved, the scale of need in Utah is too great for charities, food banks and mutual aid movements to cover alone.

Roughly 10% of Utahns are food insecure, Rickard said, meaning they don’t know where their next meal is coming from.

“Things like mini pantries, things like donating to food banks are great, but there is just a tremendous difference in need versus what is available and what can be managed reasonably,” Rickard said.

The Utah Food Bank warned Oct. 22 that it alone wouldn’t be able to fill the gap that a disruption in SNAP benefits would cause. State leaders later pledged $4 million to support the Utah Food Bank, and some restaurants and other businesses are stepping up to give away free food and menu items.

But Rickard said it’s not enough, noting that SNAP serves nine to 10 times as many people as the state’s emergency food infrastructure.

“There is no substitute for SNAP,” he said.

That’s partly because SNAP effectively addresses food insecurity on a mass scale, Rickard said. Each month, dollars are loaded onto an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card and can be spent wherever food is normally purchased.

Food banks, mini pantries and other efforts face “additional burdens” like the need for volunteers, food stocking, space needs and more, Rickard said.

Still, Lowell said that maintaining her mini pantry makes her feel helpful at a time when it’s easy to feel helpless.

“This does bring me a lot of joy,” Lowell said.

Want to start a mini pantry?

Those interested in starting a little free pantry don’t need the movement’s permission to do so, but some cities may require permits — even if it would be set up at a private residence, according to the Little Free Pantry website.

Homeowners’ associations may also impose restrictions.

Once you understand permissions, building the pantry is the next step. There are no required design specifications other than each mini pantry needs at least one receptacle to hold food. Many paint and decorate them how they see fit.

When it’s complete, those who wish to register their pantry can add it to the network’s searchable map on the movement’s website.