Free food in New York: 10 food cabinets installed in Brooklyn

On a sweltering day in July last year, Lindsay Manolakos applied the skills she learned in school. The woman sawed up pine planks, made a two-foot (60 cm) box of them, inserted a shelf in it, and attached a plexiglass door. Then she covered everything with purple paint and put up a sign: “Put what you want. Take what you need. " So in Brooklyn, the first grocery cabinet appeared, of which there are already 10 pieces, writes Curbed.

Lindsay herself, who works as a high school math teacher, calls them "tiny purple pantries." She placed the first one near her home on Bedford Avenue, and soon her neighbors began to regularly use the food bank by the side of the road (some brought food, others took).

At first, there were the simplest foods: pasta, canned vegetables, bananas, but then Lindsay began to notice spices, sandwich rolls, sometimes casseroles among them - something that was beyond the necessary.

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“I just thought about my kids, and if I had to feed them every day with sweet potatoes, broccoli and tuna, no one would like it,” she said. "So we're trying to add variety too."

Learning about the project from a local Facebook group, other Brooklyn residents expressed their willingness to place similar cabinets near their yards. And in August, Manolakos placed four more wardrobes after examining the addresses that were proposed to her. She made sure the cabinets were near busy streets, subway stations or temples.

The lockers are easy to make, but time consuming: assembly, painting, and installation can take up to six hours. To pay the bill for the consumables she originally bought with her own money, Manolakos set up last fall GoFundMe page... The goal of raising $ 500 was achieved within 36 hours. Since then, that amount has increased to $ 3 in donations (at the time of writing).

There are now ten purple cabinets in more than seven boroughs in Brooklyn (another ten are in development). They contain essential items, but also include herbs, spices, cake mixes, loose leaf teas, or bags of homemade treats and “Enjoy!” Notes.

You can find the closet closest to you here to register:.

“I thought people just needed food, but they really don't - they need joy,” Manolakos said. - Fruit snacks are a joy. There is joy in small things, and I want people to have the opportunity to receive this joy, and not just the most necessary things. " Manolakos notices people putting food in the locker outside her house every day, she also sees the shelves empty when the needy takes food.

The closet outside Laura Burgess's house on East 18th Street is regularly stocked by what she calls fairies. Her favorite is the man who occasionally brings in crispbreads with lemon and poppy seed fillings, tortillas and other freshly baked goods wrapped in handwritten pastry bags.

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“The food just appears miraculously. The locker is emptied and refilled three or four times a day, and I don't tell anyone what to do, ”she shared. During the pandemic, Burgess had to rely on food banks to feed herself and her three daughters.

For the mother of two, Teresa Campbell, who lost her job as a restaurant manager, weekly visits to the closet on East 7th Street in Kensington have led to "fewer nights of falling asleep hungry." She takes pasta, rice, sauces from there, which helps her feed her family.

There's also an unexpected treat in the closet - pistachios, her favorite snack.

“I can't afford to buy a $ 13 bag of pistachios when I only think about what to feed my kids. So the appearance of pistachios in the closet made my day absolutely happy, ”the woman shared.