Two of the pantries from Little Free Pantry Bloomington were vandalized in the past two weeks.
Little Free Pantry Bloomington provides outdoor mini-pantries around the Bloomington area that supplement emergency food access. Anyone can give or take from the pantries, according to their website.
The pantry located at Friend’s Palace had the plexiglass punched through and earlier in the summer, the door was torn off. The pantry was installed in May and there has been damage done to it from the beginning, program manager Jill Miller said.
Miller said they will probably relocate the pantry because of the amount of vandalism done in a short period.
“This isn’t reflective of the community as a whole,” Miller said. “We’ve been really well accepted, received and utilized by the community.”
The pantry located in the Waterman neighborhood appears to have been struck by a bat or some other hard object. Miller said the organization thinks it was vandalism because it looks like the pantry was hit off the post and then smashed into pieces.
The damage is especially disheartening to the volunteers working with Little Free Pantry Bloomington, Miller said/
Miller said pantries in residential areas do well because they are frequently utilized by individuals and protected by the community that uses them.
“Food insecurity is everywhere, whether you see it or not,” Miller said. “It’s not just subject to one community.”
