TheBurg September 2022

They’re popping up outside businesses, churches and on street corners.

Newspaper street boxes, metal lockers and even large mailboxes have been converted into cupboards. Tucked inside are granola bars, cereal boxes and cans of fruit. You might have missed these tiny food pantries or passed one on the street without noticing. But for those who need them, they find them.

For the past few years, local community members have opened these little community pantries. They serve as drop boxes, where people who have extra can leave a little something for those in need to pick up. In and around the Harrisburg area, the pantries have become an innovative way for neighbors to get food into hungry hands.

Peter Leonard, the CEO of Little Amps Coffee Roasters in Harrisburg, is used to feeding people. But last year, he wanted to find another way to do that and help those who couldn’t afford to purchase food. Inspired by coffee shops he saw in cities like Philadelphia and New York, Leonard set up the “Green Street Community Pantry” outside Little Amps’ Midtown location.

“It’s truly intended to be a community pantry,” he said. “Anyone should be able to use it, whether that’s to stock it or to take from it.”

Little Amps relies on the neighboring Midtown community to fill the metal locker with food. While the coffee shop set up the cupboard, it’s meant to be the community’s, Leonard explained, and residents have stepped up to the plate. He knows of several people who will regularly fill the pantry.

“It’s fulfilling to see the community engaging in it,” he said.

Innovative Aid

You may say the mini food pantry is the cousin of the little free library. James Lyles, president of Youth 10x Better Ministries, had several little libraries located throughout Harrisburg’s Allison Hill, Uptown and Midtown neighborhoods, as well as in Steelton.

When the pandemic hit, Lyles decided to swap the books for food. He now has over 10 mini pantries throughout the city.

“Everybody was on lockdown,” he said. “For people that couldn’t get out to get food, they could go there.”

During the height of COVID, he included items like masks and hand sanitizer alongside the food. Even with the most dangerous days of the pandemic behind us, Lyles and volunteer community members still fill the pantries regularly. The need hasn’t stopped, he said.

Lyles remembers a man telling him that he and his wife took food from the pantry during a time of need. Stories like that are what keep him going.

“That lets me know that it’s worth it,” he said.

Across the Susquehanna River, several high school students saw the same need for food in their community. Students at The Studio dance school in Enola recently planned for and constructed a mini food pantry.

As part of The Studio’s student leaders program, dancers are encouraged to find ways to serve. In the past, they’ve participated in trash cleanups, collected winter clothing for people in need and assisted with local parades. While discussing new ways to conduct outreach at a meeting, students decided on a food pantry.

“Food insecurity is a big issue,” said Kara Bidgood Enders, a high school senior. “I see it within my own school.”

Eleventh-grader Eliana Roof, who attends Dauphin County Technical School for its construction program, took the lead on the pantry.

“I saw it as an opportunity to be a part of that project,” she said.

For the next few weeks, Roof built the pantry during shop class at school with the help of her teacher, Robert Brightbill. This summer, they set it up outside The Studio and filled it with nonperishables.

Since then, the students have already seen the difference it’s made. Items have already emptied out, and community members have refilled the box. With classes restarting at The Studio for the fall, owner Jennifer Turner Long expects lots of donations from students and their families.

“This group of kids is very thoughtful and large of heart, and the families go above and beyond,” she said.

For the student leaders at The Studio, their mini pantry project has given them a chance to make a difference in their community.

“It’s rewarding,” said 11th-grader Olivia Long. “I didn’t expect it to be as successful as it is. To see it’s helping others and working—it’s nice to see.”

Read the full of the article here.

TheBurg, August 2018

It didn’t stay small for long.

After just a year, it had to locate to larger space down the road at the Summerdale Plaza, where it remains today, even as enrollment has grown from that first class of 24 students to 450.

“I have a staff of 15 now, but I still teach,” said Long. “It’s still fun. I love being with the kids.”

Despite such growth, Long said that she strives to maintain an atmosphere of closeness and caring.

“Every year, we grow, and managing that is the challenge,” she said. “It’s so important not to feel like a big place. We know our families here. This is our community.”

Simply put, Long wants The Studio to feel like one big family, an effort not lost on Dave Crozier. With four children, ages 8 to 14, all pursuing dance, Crozier, of Enola, spends “a lot of time” there.

“I view The Studio as more than a dance school,” he said. “They teach grace, manners and humility and maintain a family atmosphere.”

Conveying values like work ethic and kindness are also high on the agenda, Long explained.

“We cultivate our students’ best selves,” she said.

My Calling

When The Studio first opened as a small facility in Marysville, Long went door to door to recruit clients.

Within a year, the business had grown enough to move, but it didn’t expand all at once. Instead, it opened with just one studio in the plaza’s lower level, gradually expanding to four.

“We bootstrapped it,” said Long, who runs the business with husband Kevin, who serves as house photographer and videographer. “We used what we earned and didn’t borrow to build any of this.”

About 30 months into the venture, Long felt confident enough to quit her full-time job in the IT field and devote all of her time to The Studio. In effect, the school served as a daycare for daughter Olivia, now 12, whom the Longs adopted from China.

”I could never get away from dance,” Long said. “It was my calling. It spoke to me.”

Read the full article here.