Orgy of sugar: how school donations turned my free pantry into a junk-food fever dream

Kim Foster, author of The Meth Lunches: Food and Longing in an American City, tried to distribute healthy food in Las Vegas during the pandemic

During the first year of the pandemic, I put out a few rolls of toilet paper in my Little Free Library. I found myself adding more and more, until one day, I realized I was running a free pantry. People kept showing up, asking for food and supplies. Soon there was a fridge, too, with a sketchy extension cord running back to the house to keep it powered.

I didn't know it at the time, but our family would run this pantry for more than a year, providing fresh vegetables, herbs, meat and dairy to our downtown Las Vegas community. Neighbors often wanted to chip in and help. They asked what the pantry needed.