Little Free Pantry Cool Weather update

Published on February 15, 2021 • Michelle Voelker

Souper Bowl Sunday Can Drive Update, the Little Free Pantry Safety in the cold cold weather

As the weather is unfortunately going to be much colder this next week than anticipated when we asked you to fill the Pantry with soups, we ask that you please:

• Stagger your donations – the temperatures will be warmer in a week and the need for canned items will still be there.
• Purchase and place boxes of broth and soups in the pantry. Boxes of chicken, beef, and vegetable broth can be safely frozen, and add nutrition and flavor to pastas, stuffing and other box mixes.
• Purchase and place dried soup mixes in the pantry.
• Add spices for chili, along with dried beans, rice and pasta.
• Consider putting together a ‘recipe bag’ for a soup, complete with frozen vegetables (they will stay cold!)

Cold weather safety: The cold weather allows us to place more meats, cheese, and other perishables in the Little Free Pantry. It also means placing glass items in the Little Free Pantry is unsafe in freezing weather, along with items such as mayonnaise (even in plastic jars, it just separates and becomes gross after being frozen). Even so, the Pantry is used quite frequently. As many of you have discovered, it is frequently empty, so we don’t worry much about canned or other goods freezing when the temperature dips below freezing for a few hours overnight, as long as the temps rise again. We do monitor the pantry when temps drop significantly, or stay low for longer periods of time, and in the past have removed some items for safe keeping. The Pantry has been embraced by the community, so we are not in complete control. As this is what we had hoped for, we simply ask that if you do see:

• a dented can, please remove and discard that item.
• an item in glass that might burst, remove it and replace it when the weather warms above freezing. Do the same for cans when we are going to have a long stretch of below freezing temps.