Eighteen-year-old Shailee Shah created her first Little Free Pantry — basically like a Free Little Library, except with food and other basic necessities — in 2018, at her Middle School in Edison before she moved to Hillsborough. Since then, pantries have been set up at two more locations, in front of the Somerville YMCA in January 2020 and in front of the Bridgewater YMCA about a month ago; the pantry is located far enough from the entrance where there is privacy, but close enough to the road where someone can easily pull over and give or take items. Shah says they installed a solar light after realizing some people make their stops when it’s dark out.
Shah said she hopes to install another Little Free Pantry in Newark, where she will be attending NJIT as a freshman in the fall. If anyone is interested in installing a Little Free Pantry in their town or city, they visit her nonprofit at thesparkmomentum.org.
