WOOSTER, Ohio — The rules at the small wooden pantry on Buckeye Street in Wooster are simple: take what you need and give when you can.
Residents say the sharing goes both ways.
“You’ll see people stop by to drop stuff off but they’ll also leave with a couple of things,” said Peggy Kelley, a Wooster resident.
The pantry is part of a larger transformation led by David Griffith, who saw potential in a condemned property that was eventually removed.
“There was a house here. It was condemned and eventually it was torn down,” Griffith said.
That happened over 20 years ago.
He now has several lots— and he wants more.
“There are more vacant lots and when I drive by I think, 'I could do something with that one,'” Griffin said.
Once a spot frequented by drug dealers, the park has become a safe, welcoming space.
For some, the pantry provides small but essential items.
“Sometimes people fall on hard times," Lindsey Zura, who has used the pantry before, said. "Short on money. Sometimes you can’t pay [for] little things.”
Others said they get just as much from giving as they do from receiving.
“I’m blessed, so I’m supposed to share my blessing. And I get more reward out of this than anybody ever knows,” one donor said, fighting back tears.
Many of the fresh vegetables on the pantry table are grown nearby at the Buckeye Street Garden, just eight houses away. The garden offers seeds, tools and plots for free.
“Then what they are able to do is grow their own food… then they can take that back and are able to offset food insecurity,” Griffith said.
The spirit of sharing extends to the garden itself.
“If they grow collard greens and I grow tomatoes and they didn’t grow tomatoes. We can barter and give each other what they don’t have,” said Robert Taylor-Franklin, a volunteer with the project. “It’s more special because you’ve got somebody that sayings, ‘Here. I don’t have much but I can give you this.’”
From pantry to garden, and back again, residents say it’s a cycle of generosity that nourishes more than just bodies; it feeds a sense of community.
