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HOOPER, Weber County — For families already coping with food insecurity, the past month has been hard.
Whether it’s the unprecedented layoffs, the closing of public schools, medical bills, fear of going into public, or a combination of all four, the spread of COVID-19 has compounded an already difficult situation for families unsure of where their next meal will come from.
Enter Nikki Barlow. Since the end of March, the mother of four has been accepting nonperishable donations that she offers up at her own, newly built food pantry at her home in Hooper, Weber County.
“There had to be something I could do to help the community because there’s so many people out there hoarding toilet paper and buying all the milk,” Barlow said. “My community has a lot of elderly people, and my thought was if they don’t have to go to the grocery store, I don’t want them to because they’re at such high risk.”
Barlow and her husband build the pantry, which is about the size of a bookshelf, with used pallets and an old bookcase. In less than two weeks she received a flood of donations, including hygiene products, nonperishable foods and even DVDs.
What started as a simple act of kindness has now spread through the northern Utah town, and Barlow said at least four other residents are operating similar pantries in the Hooper area.
In Salt Lake City, a few other good Samaritans have launched similar operations. The Little Free Library at 622 W. 100 South offers free lettuce and kale seeds. And in the Marmalade District near the state Capitol, one resident built a similar pantry, offering toilet paper, toothpaste and nonperishable food to anyone in need.
The demand is huge, and since the wave of layoffs and school closures swept Utah, food banks across the state are scrambling to meet the needs of hungry families.
“We’ll run out of 300 bags of food in about 2½ hours,” said James Yapias, director of the Salt Lake Education Foundation.
With help from the Salt Lake School District, the Salt Lake Education Foundation launched three grab-and-go food banks in March to help families that typically rely on free lunch programs at public schools. In the first week, Yapias said, the Liberty Community Center bank served 2,000 families, while the Rose Park and Glendale locations ran out of food each day before 10 a.m.
“The demand is still there,” Yapias said. “At Rose Park we’ve still had those long lines, they’ve increased.”
Barlow said her pantry, which bears a sign reading “Take what you need, leave what you can,” was a much needed addition to her community.
“There’s been a lot of donations ... but it pretty much turns over, everything in it, in about 24 to 48 hours,” said Barlow, who checks the pantry a few times a day, making sure it’s full every night before she goes to bed.
On Saturday, a woman stopped by Barlow’s home with her children to pick up some canned food. Barlow recalled the woman’s eyes lighting up when she and her husband offered her a few pounds of hamburger.
“She was so thankful, so grateful, it was just amazing to see,” Barlow said.
As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to climb, Barlow said she has no plans to stop taking donations, hinting that she might continue to maintain the the pantry once the pandemic passes.
“I feel like as long as people have a need and they’re willing to continue to give and take food, I’ll keep it up as long as I can,” she said. “It’s been a fun project.”
