Photo: Naomi Fiss
As inflation and grocery prices soar, Priscilla Lee, a volunteer in the San Francisco Bay Area, created a food pantry from scratch to feed neighbors in need. This idea germinated after Lee, an airline employee, voluntarily took a leave of absence from her job during the pandemic, which was part of an effort to help reduce layoffs. She volunteered at a local food bank and was surprised how many people in her affluent neighborhood needed help accessing healthy food. She was allowed to bring excess food home and begin distributing it to neighbors. Now, a few years later, Lee runs the food share through a local Buy Nothing group, which has more than 700 members. She coordinates volunteers to pick up donations and has a weekly food distribution event. She estimates that she redistributes more than 7,000 pounds of food every month to her co-workers, her Buy Nothing community and some of her neighbors. In addition to the food bank, she often receives donations from nonprofits and people in the community that have extra food or fruit from their backyard trees.
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