Athens, Vermont couple grows homemade food shelf with international support

Athens, Vermont couple grows homemade food shelf with international support

A couple from Athens, Vermont started a free food pantry in their front yard last fall and have continued to provide for their community for the last nine months, using donations sent from people all around the world

ATHENS, Vt. —

During the federal government shutdown last fall, a couple opened a free food bank outside their home in Athens, after learning many of their neighbors would be impacted by cuts in SNAP benefits. Nine months later, the pair has continued to provide for their community and grow their food pantry.

Krista Gay began her free food pantry last October when SNAP benefits were disrupted.

“The threat of removing SNAP revealed a deep need in my community that I was just unaware of before,” she said.

Gay learned that her town doesn’t have a food shelf and many residents deal with transportation challenges, so she and her husband stepped in to help. Their project started small with a couple containers stuffed with food from the couple’s kitchen in their front yard.

“My husband and I took plastic totes that we had from like storage in our basement, and we took things from our pantry like mac and cheese, canned goods, and we put them out,” said Gay.

Within months the project quickly outgrew those bins, so her cousin built them a shed to hold all the items. It carries everything from canned meats, pastas, and spices to pet food, and hygiene products.

Gay said from the beginning, she documented the process.

“I posted on TikTok just to like, show, like what I was doing. And I woke up the next morning, and it had over a million views,” she said.

Across platforms, her social media has reached more than 100,000 followers and now her supporters don’t just watch videos about the homemade food bank; they help keep it filled.

“The post office had to start sending us a special mail truck because we got so many packages every day, and now we still get 50 plus packages a week,” Gay explained.

The couple has received donations from around the world, including deliveries sent by people in Finland, New Zealand and Australia.

“We have this really sweet woman named Pat, who sends us packages every week from Texas,” said Gay.

Gay has also heard from dozens of people online who were inspired to start their own free pantries. She plans to continue the project as long as possible because families in her community still struggle.

“At the end of the month when folks’ SNAP benefits start to run out because like inflation, everything’s more expensive, people will put in notes about how much it helped them get through the last week,” she said.

Gay revealed it has been life-changing to see the amount of generosity and support shown to their Athens community, from people who have never even been to their town.