With Little Free Pantries, neighbors feed neighbors in need

Jessica McClard is an avid runner and reader.

It was during her runs that she noticed the first Little Free Library in her hometown of Fayetteville, Arkansas. The homemade book exchange boxes had been proliferating all over the country. Soon there were four such libraries within walking distance of her home, situated in her middle-class neighborhood in a college town. She became fascinated with the Little Free Libraries and thought a lot about why she was drawn to them.

“These little free spaces create a place to be neighborly again,” she says. “And that is something that some of us really, really want. If that’s the case, and it’s as much about the space as the books, then anything might go inside it.”