Help Build a Mobile Free Pantry for Portland, ME!

Organizing under the ideology of mutual aid and following our experiences working with free stores doing direct outreach, our goal is to build a semi-permanent free pantry and fridge that is open to the entire community to contribute to, as well as take from. The aim is to offer many of the necessary essentials offered by other community aid groups (such as survival gear, clothes, hygiene products, sharps collection, Narcan, OTC meds and wound care, as well as food items), but with the understanding that we as a group will not be stocking it and are depending on community engagement for it to be full.

We've very graciously been donated an 8'x16' trailer bed, and are planning to build an electrified shed with a fridge on it so the pantry is mobile and could be used to serve different neighborhoods throughout Portland. We will be partnering with neighborhood businesses for the use of their parking space. In the short term, the electricity will be sourced from partnering organizations but we would eventually like to make the pantry more self-sustaining through solar panels. The pantry will include labeled sections for the provided goods, a fridge for perishable food, as well as a wants list and dedicated space for retrieval for special item requests. All donated funds will go towards the cost of construction, which is estimated at $4k with an extra $1k buffer for inflation and other incidentals. Any funds donated over our goal will go towards filling the pantry and starting to save for solar panels to make the pantry more self-reliant.

In essence, we are seeking to create a space to facilitate accessing the necessary goods without having to run it physically. By partnering with local businesses and opening it up to the entire community (unhoused, lower-income, middle class and wealthy alike) to give/take from, we hope to start a dialogue regarding immediate community care and create a meeting place for the community to better understand its needs. Our systems are failing us, we must work together to build a better, more egalitarian and accessible ones for ourselves. Solidarity not charity.