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Community Pantries Stocked With "Solidarity Not Charity"

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After Forward Indiana co-founders Sarah Thompson and Carlos Marcano spent their Sundays throughout the spring and summer months serving up free meals in the park to the city's hungry, they have developed a Community Pantry initiative to better address the problem.

A typically stocked pantry will offer a wide variety of non-perishable food items as well as household and hygiene products.
Credit Courtesy/Forward Indiana

By now, these self contained cupboards are popping up all over the city and beyond, each one a work of public art as well as public spirit.

"It's a way to bring the community together to help one another," says Thompson. "Take what you need and give what you can."

"It's solidarity not charity, and that means that we stand with everybody that comes here and it's for everybody."

To learn the scope of the project and who all is being served, WBOI's Julia Meek sat down with the couple to discuss the motivation behind the momentum that is quickly building on the horizon.

Credit Courtesy/Forward Indiana

You can learn more about the Community Pantry project and get involved at the Forward Indiana Facebook page.

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A Fort Wayne native, Julia is a radio host, graphic artist, and community volunteer, who has contributed to NIPR both on- and off-air for forty years. Besides being WBOI's arts & culture reporter, she currently co-produces and hosts Folktales and Meet the Music.