Here at the choko tree, at different times of the year, we get excess produce and like when we step out the front door in summer, arms full zucchinis, and all of the surrounding neighbours close all their doors and windows, a similar thing happens in late autumn with chokoes! So having worn out our friends, family and neighbours with our excess, I wanted to make food available to passers-by. I had the idea to make a ‘street pantry’ (analogous to our ‘street library’ but with food) when I first saw pics of what others had done on the net a few years ago, and now it was time to spring (limp slowly?) into action and put something together.
The Base
My first thought for the base was to rip apart some of the pallets stored down the back for exactly this sort of purpose, but the common sense took hold and I wandered around looking for something that would be quicker and easier! As luck would have it, I found a wooden crate in one of the sheds, it had been used for a number of things over the years but at this point it was just sitting there full of crap. Winner! I relocated the crap (can’t have too much crap!) and dragged it out into the light of day for inspection.
While we do get surpluses, in most cases they are not huge, so I did not want a vast street pantry that spent most of its time being 90% empty thus I didn’t want something too large, just large enough to contain a mix of whatever we had going at the time. The crate was 445mm long x 320mm wide x 200mm deep so it seemed ideal for my purpose.
The next question was where to mount it? I looked around the area where the street library and community bench are located and decided rather than try and fit it onto the trunk of one of the melaleuca trees at the front, I would instead screw it onto the post that the street library sits on and directly below it. There should be no mistaking my intent if I did that.
Before I did anything else, I painted a coat of blackboard paint on each end of the crate and let it dry so that I could mark it up the way I wanted.
The Fit Out
The next point was to design the street pantry and decided to simply turn the crate on its side, install a roof and a single shelf inside.
The roof is the same material I used for the roof of the street library, ie Mini Orb and I found a piece that seemed to be wide enough and I only had to cut it to length. The final piece was 550mm long by 330mm wide, thus allowing 50mm or so overhang on each side and 130mm at the front. There would be no overhang at the back because the whole deal was to be attached directly to the street library post.
I wanted to angle the roof up, for several reasons. One, (obviously) so rain could run off towards the back, but also, (two) since it was being mounted low on the pole, to make it easier to reach in and get the goodies. Also (three) I wanted to be able to support the overhanging part of the roof. To do these things II installed a length of DAR 40mm x 20mm pine the same length as the roofing Mini Orb into the front of the case with two wood screws. I then drilled and screwed the Mini Orb to the front support and the back of the case with three wood screws. That seemed to do the job.
To make the shelf I grabbed some of the leftover 3 ply from making the Chook Tractor Access and cut it to fit the inside of the crate. To support it I cut a couple of bits of waste timber and then screwed them to the side of the crate. It was then just a matter of sliding the shelf into place. I had installed the side supports so they were at the same height as one of the holes between the slats at the back, so the shelf slid in and a little bit onto the back slat so that it was supported on three sides. In reality I guess it was plenty strong enough for the loads that would be placed on it, after all how much could a few chokoes weigh?
Installation
The installation really was a five minute job once the pantry was assembled. It was just a case of clearing away some of the foliage from the bottom of the post, lining up the pantry so that it did not obstruct the library door and then drilling in four wood screws through the back and into the support post. Job done!
Or so I thought!
Linda went out a bit later to check my work and reported that she was concerned about how people would have to bend down to get under the protruding roof, and that the edge of the roof was a bit sharp and may possible cause an injury.
That was immediately remedied by getting some surplus garden hose, slicing it open down one side, and then pushing it over the outer edge of the Mini Orb roof. This provided a safe and non slicey edge to the roof.
I then stocked the pantry with some goodies. Now it was job done!
2024 Update
The idea was that I would put the excess produce that we grew in there and people could take what they want, as they wanted it. In reality, the produce could sit in there for days or weeks before someone claimed it. For that reason I could not put anything leafy in there, it would look pretty sad within a day or so and I would have to compost it. That was my thought behind growing stuff like silver beet in bathtubs in the front yard, so people could harvest their own, but that is another story!
Anyway, that is the way things ran up until about a month ago. I had a brilliant new idea of putting things like ginger root, Jerusalem artichokes and carrots into plastic takeaway food containers to keep them fresh as they sat there waiting to be claimed. Coincidentally, as soon as I started doing that (as well as oranges, mandarines and a couple of other bits of produce we had going) the pantry would get cleaned out almost every day! Mostly they would leave the food containers and just take the produce, and I did see one guy who returned them empty, and he was looking a bit rough, poor fella!
It seems that the cost of food has bitten people hard around here and they are taking advantage of what they can get. The F&V pantry gets cleaned out regularly and does not stay filled up for more than a day and sometimes multiple times in one day. I have even had it when on one occasion I had just topped it up in the morning, gone out to add something less than fifteen minutes later and everything was gone!
With the new, quicker throughput I have started broadening the sorts of produce I put into the F&V pantry and now include leaves like makrut (kaffir lime), curry tree and bay leaves as well as a few fresh herbs like rosemary and parsley. I also put a half dozen of our homegrown eggs in when we get excess to our needs. I did experiment with stuff that was not really our produce like rice and homemade stock powder, but we now have a new (grocery) street pantry for that sort of food.
I checked the letter box a couple of days ago and there was a lovely card in there from a lady who had been using our free F&V, it turns out her grandson was visiting from overseas. It was so nice that she cared enough to thank us for our generosity.
In any case, it is great to see our excess produce being used by people who need it.
