‘If you have, give; If you need, take.’ Free Food Pantry installed in Cutler Bay
The motto is simple: “If you have, give; If you need, take.”
That’s what’s written on a colorful wooden box that was just installed outside a warehouse in Cutler Bay.
The box, called the TLC Little Food Pantry, is meant to help those who struggle with getting food on the table. It’s stocked with cereal, pasta, sauce, snacks and other nonperishable foods.
B’nai Torah TLC Program’s Little Free Pantry partnered with the nonprofit organization The Legacy Closet to install the pantry, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Anyone can come to the pantry — located at 18569 SW 104th Ave. — and take whatever food they need. People can also stock the pantry whenever they want. The pantry has a QR code so people can track what’s in there and when it needs to be refilled.
Summer Faerman, the director of The Ron and Meryl Gallatin Tzedakah, Learning and Chesed (TLC) Program of B’nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton, began the pantry project in 2020.
The Cutler Bay location is the 50th pantry installed, and the first in Miami-Dade. Faerman said the pantries are strategically placed in areas where there are bus lines and public housing. The other pantries are located in Broward, Palm Beach, Orlando and in the Panhandle.
“We are always trying to make sure the pantry is accessible to everyone,” she said, adding that teaming up with other organizations is key. “You can’t do this alone.”
Margi Bré, the founder of The Legacy Closet — which is an organization that helps those who are struggling financially — said the pantries at the organization’s two other locations — one in Broward and one in Palm Beach — have been a success.
“It’s really been a help for a lot of people,” she said.
For more information on the Little Free Pantry, visit https://btcboca.org/littlefreepantry. For more information about The Legacy Closet call : 786-694-8897 or visit www.TheLegacyCloset.org.
This story was originally published October 22, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
