Riverside Middle eighth-grader Hannah Huff built the pantry as part of her Silver Award for the Girl Scouts.
When Hannah Huff saw a need in her community, she built a solution.
The eighth-grader at Riverside Middle School has spent the past few months building a little free pantry on the corner of Kings Way and Troupe Street near The Hill Baptist Church.
The project was part of her Girl Scout Silver Award, which encourages girls to choose an issue and improve their community.
Hannah's mother, Joann, was working for the church when she was choosing her project and heard church members talking about little free pantries in Aiken.
After talking with Pastor Ron Jones, Joann and her daughter researched such pantries and decided to build one not only for church members but also for the broader community.
"They liked the idea of a little pantry, so my mom and I talked to them and we came up with a date to help come and figure out how to get together and figure out what design they wanted and what colors," Hannah said of the church.
With the help of her father, Craig, Hannah built the pantry and painted it white to match the church and the fire station across the street. Joann Huff said the church was supportive of the project.
"They were interested in helping support the project, and also it’s a very central location," she said.
Jones said the church had a food pantry in the past, but it was open for only a few hours once a month. He said the little pantry will be open at all hours for anyone in need.
"The benefit for this one is our church membership can be involved but also our neighborhood, so the idea is they can come and drop things off and if they have a need they can take things that they may need," Jones said.
Since the free pantry is small, Jones said he knows it will not be able to help everybody, but it should be able to fill immediate needs.
"We’re not going to feed everybody, but we’re going to feed somebody, and that’s the main thing," he said. "We have people come almost every day asking for some need."
The pantry holds toiletries and items such as soup, peanut butter and beans. When school begins again, Jones said it will hold school supplies. The pantry's contents have been collected through donations to Hannah and the church.
Huff said she and her daughter will visit the pantry occasionally and refill it as needed, but they hope the community gradually fills in what is taken.
"We’re going to try to keep an eye on it, go by it and stock it occasionally for the first year," Huff said. "But the idea behind the Silver Award Project is that it’s a sustainable project, so the 'take one, leave one' we hope in time will cover itself once people get the idea and realize what’s in there."
Hannah is a Cadette with Troop 20295 in the Greater Clarks Hill area. The Silver Award is the second level for a Girl Scout, after the Bronze Award, which is done as a troop. Starting next year, Hannah can begin the Gold Award, which is equivalent to the Boy Scouts' Eagle Scout title, Huff said.
"She just has a heart for helping her community however she can," Huff said.
