Five Sayville High Schoolers Create 'Little Food Pantries'

SAYVILLE, NY— Five Sayville high school girls have decided to make the most of their unexpected pandemic free time by giving back to the community. Not in full-time school or sports, the friends, all in ninth grade, heard about a free community refrigerator in Queens meant to allow those in the community to access needed food items, for free, and others to drop off donations. Molly Brady, Courtney Thornton, Fallon Santoro, Loghan McNamara and Ellie Sheehan thought the concept might work in Sayville.

Instead of a community refrigerator, the girls are launching what they are calling "little free pantries," inspired by the communal book repositories called "Little Free Libraries." The national organization Little Free Library offers kits and assembly instructions for those wanting to build their own little free library, and the girls started a GoFundMe page to raise funds to buy three or four for Sayville. But instead of free books, free dry food will be stocked for those in need.

Tara Brady says her daughter Molly Brady and her friends were inspired by the Queens free refrigerator concept and also hearing about the food insecurity happening in their very own backyard. Sayville's Claws Seafood Market put out a cooler with milk and eggs last spring and as Tara Brady tells Patch, "we heard people were taking everything. We saw the need."

Molly Brady knew a former teacher who had set up the free libraries and asked her for guidance. By Wednesday of this week, the girls had raised enough to build three or free pantries. The girls reached out to local businesses to donate space for the pantries downtown and the plan, Tara Brady says, is to "hit all corners of West Sayville and Sayville. We want it to be accessible to people by walking...in time for the holidays."

The girls plan to regularly check the pantries and restock them and community residents who want to help are welcome to donate items. The girls plan to share the locations of the pantries on social media once they are finalized, and are thinking about possibly adding a community refrigerator down the line. Another international platform called Freedge connects people who want to build or find community "free fridges, or freedges" in their town.

The girls are sure Sayville where the community help model can work.

"Sayville is a town that gives," Brady said.