Four years ago, ABC Action Newstold you about the City of Gulfport's Little Free Pantry. There were a few around town, and the goal of the brown boxes was to help reduce food insecurity.
According to the latest data from Feeding America, more than 2.3 million Floridians lack access to healthy food. Between 9-14% of people in the Tampa Bay area are food insecure. And, in Pinellas County, more than 100,000 may not get enough to eat on a daily basis.
Part of the problem is a third of those food insecure earn too much to receive food stamps.
The Little Free Pantries in front of the public library and fire station in Gulfport are now being taken down because of concerns about what was left inside.
The boxes are only meant to store non-perishable food items, but the city said that wasn't happening. There are two volunteers that check on the pantries daily, sometimes more than once, and they found food that could rot and make someone sick if not eaten soon enough.
"Our parks department has taken care of the pantries. If extra boxes showed up, and there was a need where people donated, there was a need for people to get donated supplies, and that collaborative effort, we wanted to sort of vet what items were going in so a wrong item doesn't get distributed," said Justin Shea, the Public Information Officer for the City of Gulfport.
Some neighbors told ABC Action News they are sad to see them go and expressed how important they've been to everyone in the community.
"It's such a wonderful thing! It's by the library; it's something there for people to take if they need it, leave something if they want to leave it," said Michelle Unterberger. "The people who use the free pantry are probably more than usual people that need it."
One neighbor said she thinks the community has such good intentions and wants to help however they can and the city agreed with that.
"If we bought extra groceries, we'd all go put them in," said Robin Caryl. "This is a really friendly, special community."
While Heather Leigh and her photographer were getting a video of the boxes, a person stopped to leave food, and another person stopped to take something, which shows they are being used.
But perishable food isn't all volunteers found recently inside the box. The city said they found a bottle of Benadryl and a half-open can of beer. Volunteers brought their concerns to the City Council and they ultimately decided to try something else. They didn't want to see medication or alcohol end up in the hands of a young person.
The city also posted signs at the pantry sitesthat list off resources to help with food insecurity. The signs mention two restaurants in the Gulfport area that have food pantries inside, Funky Flamingo and Jax In and Out.
"They have someone there that can essentially be that person to vet what enters the pantry. These pantries on public property are just open to everybody and regardless of what goes in and what goes out, as we enter summer time we wanted to make sure the kids in the city, if they go to the pantry, they don't get something that is expired or harmful to their health," Shea said.
The pantries will be taken down on June 1 but the signs will remain up.
