Good things often come in small packages and that includes the Tiny Pantry Project.
Tiny pantries are 2-foot square structures placed at homeless shelters to make toiletries, non-perishable foods, diapers and other baby products available 24/7 when many homeless shelters are locked at night.
This community outreach project was the idea of Fenton non-profit Snuggle Sacks — survival kits for the homeless, after seeing a similar project succeed in Lansing.
“It has been a collaboration to find sponsors,” said Stacy Daul, who coordinates her family’s volunteer involvement at Snuggle Sacks. This organization was founded by her
daughter, Addisyn Goss in 2015, when Addisyn was just 8 years old.
Thanks to the generosity of Top Choice Builders in Fenton and David Scott, mortgage officer at The State Bank, 10 fully built tiny pantries have been built and are ready to be installed in their permanent homes. Snuggle Sacks currently has one tiny pantry in front of the Shelter of Flint.
Scott donated wood and other building materials and Top Choice Builders donated the labor to build each $250 tiny pantry. “The project is starting to gain traction,” Daul said. “There are many shelters and organizations on a waiting list to receive one.”
The first three will be going to Flint’s Central Community Development Program, Carriage House Ministries and My Brother’s Keeper. They will be installed in the ground by the Daul family as soon as the ground thaws.
Civic groups who want to help keep the tiny pantries stocked will soon be able to view an interactive map on the Snuggle Sacks’ website to see what supplies are running low at different locations.
The 10 tiny pantries were delivered Wednesday, March 20 by Top Choice Builders to the Snuggle Sacks headquarters at 1495 Dauner Rd., Suite C, in the same building as Animal Health Clinic. For more information, go to Snugglesacks.org.
