February 23, 2021

“There's a little free pantry next door to my house. Our kind and wonderful neighbors put it up for our neighborhood - yay!

Recently, people have started dropping off...castoffs. Today it was a grocery bag of empty cd cases. Last week a box of what looked like the leftover trash & junk from someone's desk drawer: paper clips, pins, a wristband from a festival, plus a horse blanket (??). Sometimes there are clothes and shoes, sometimes it's literally trash, broken toys, papers, and empty bottles. Frequently there are used dishes and household items or appliances (not things like socks, towels, or other things you might think are useful to a person who is homeless or can't keep things).

How do we discourage the salvation army-type donations while still expressing thanks for the generosity of our neighbors? I don't want to sound thankless, but there's a pile of junk building right outside my door. Food and hygiene products, stacked on shelves, are a godsend for people. Bags and boxes of junk strewn across the sidewalk just look like litter in the neighborhood.

I am not the custodian of the pantry, just live next door. I don't want to put a sign on it, because it's not mine. I can talk to the neighbors when they are home, but in the meantime:

  1. What do I do if the people who ARE the custodians are the donors of the junk and/or want it?

  2. What do we neighbors collectively do if people won't stop leaving junk around the pantry?