Tiny but mighty

By Teri Cadeau

Wendy Berg, of West Duluth, calls hers the “Caring Corner Cube.”

Russ Salgy at the Valley Youth Center in Spirit Valley refers to theirs as the “Sharing Shelves.”

Delaney Kreager says the one she installed outside Ruth House in Superior is the “Little Free Pantry.”

No matter what they’re called, the goal is the same: to care for those in need in the community through free outdoor pantries filled with food and other necessary supplies. Much like the “Little Free Libraries” that have grown in popularity over the past decade, these small pantries have popped up around the Twin Ports in recent years.

The inspiration for these pantries seems to lie in social media. That’s where Berg saw the idea first five years ago. She shared it with her friends and a year later, when Facebook showed her the post in her “memories” feed, she decided it was time to set up one of her own outside her house at 1127 N. Central Ave.

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“My husband built it for me,” Berg said. “And it’s been so awesome over these years and gotten so much use that we’ll actually have to take it down this fall to repair it.”

When they pull it in for maintenance, Berg said they’ll continue to have a box out on the corner so there’s still a place for people to place or take donations. She said the pantry sees a lot of use, especially around Christmas and near the start of the school year.

“Which makes me happy, as my whole goal when I was setting this up was to help out families and kids in need,” Berg said. “I was working for a school at the time and I knew there were a lot of kids who only got food at school. So I wanted to help make sure kids could get fed at night.”

Helping out schoolage children was also a motivation between the Sharing Shelves at the Valley Youth Center, not too far away from Berg’s pantry on the corner of Central Avenue and Cody Street. Salgy said the idea came from the center’s AmeriCorps members working at the site. For their Youth Global Service Day, they helped put up the shelves about five years ago.

“Since then, it’s been very busy,” Salgy said. “Typically, if you put something in there around 9 a.m., it will be gone by 3 p.m. Someone will find a use for it.”

While the pantry has a steady supply of canned goods and other nonperishable food, Salgy said school supplies also disappear quickly.

“It’s a pretty high foot traffic and highneed area,” Salgy said. “A lot of kids walk past there on their way to or from school, so they’re able to pick things up as they need them.”

Overall, Salgy said he’s appreciated seeing more of the pantries pop up.

“I think they’re an asset to our community. I think it shows the level of care in our community for each one of our neighbors,” Salgy said.

That was also Kreager’s goal when she set up the Little Free Pantry last year outside Ruth House, 632 Grand Ave., in Superior. The pantry was Kreager’s senior project prior to graduation at Marshall School. She said she was inspired by her father’s volunteer work with Ruby’s Pantry.

“He’s the coordinator of the one at the Coppertop church (First United Methodist Church),” Kreager said. “I’d go with him. At the end of the night, they’d often have extra food left over, so we’d bring it to shelters in the area. I thought it would be cool to bring it to a Little Free Pantry like this one, so we started to build it.”

Like Berg, Kreager got the idea for the pantry from an Instagram post. She and her father built the pantry with repurposed supplies from house projects and she received a grant from Thrivent Financial for the handle and first round of supplies.

Now a student at Lake Superior College, Kreager said she returns to the pantry once a month or so to see how it’s progressing. Every time she visits, she said she brings different items, such as feminine hygiene products.

“Those tend to go really fast,” she said. “It’s something that people might not always think about donating, but I’m sure people are really grateful for when they find them.” u

Rick Lubbers

Much has been spoken, written and opined about the wonders of “gratitude.”

It’s a word with a lot of power behind it. A noun that propels many verbs.

Author Melody Beattie recognized that and wrote,“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

Hopefully the stories you read in this issue of DNT Extra will provide just that — sense, peace and vision. Those qualities are certainly evident among the people and organizations in these stories.

The News Tribune newsroom is honored to tell the stories of these remarkable people and organizations who work tirelessly to make the Northland a better place for all of us. Often their work takes place behind the scenes and without much fanfare. They cheerfully help others, not for accolades, but to improve the lives of their neighbors.

This edition of DNT Extra is one small way to share their positive impacts with you.

We hope you enjoy reading about them.

Thank you for being a loyal Duluth News Tribune reader.

Rick Lubbers is the executive editor of the Duluth News Tribune. Contact him at 218-723-5301 or rlubbers@duluthnews.com.

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Tiny but mighty

Living Lyle’s legacy

Haglin retires from Northland Foundation

Zeitgeist team lins Duluth’s Hillside with vaccines

Men as Peacemakers charges toward liberation

From ‘destroyer’ to ‘builder’

From idealism to pragmatism

Center for Changings Lives lives up to its name ‘Active living is good living’

Cover: Stock photos

Cover designed by: Gary Meader / gmeader@duluthnews.com