The current economic situation in 2025 and 2026 is making things hard on folks. Whether its the cost of food due to inflation, tariffs, or the loss of safety nets there are millions of families struggling. We’re not excluded by this. But we are still fortunate in our house.
Because we can give back a little, we are. Our donations go to PBS, NPR, WPR (Wisconsin Public Radio), Wisconsin Council for the Blind & Visually Impaired, and a few more. While helping these organizations keeps them running with their services, we are seeing our neighbors struggle with food insecurity. With the cutting of SNAP benefits, we’re doing what we can to help the local community.
Free Little Pantry
Donate NowWe started on Halloween having put together several bags that provide a family of four food for three days.We didn’t receive many takers that night, so we converted what we had into a little pantry on our lawn for people to take what they need.
We also ask that those who have something to spare to leave it. However, we are limited in what we can fund each month and our set up is highly temporary. We’d like to make it more permanent and offer more. This takes funding we don’t have at this time.
If you’d like to help, we are accepting donations. A $5 donation is a loaf of bread for 5 families. For $20, you are helping provide a 3 day bag for a family of four.
This is our mission regardless of support from the greater community, but any help is greatly appreciated. All funds donated are earmarked and tracked and we will provide transparency as donations come in. We are not a 501(3C) or a registered tax deductible charitable organization at this time.
Thank you for your support.
Melissa & Nat Tarnoff
Update: 11/15/2025
You can see in the photo our little pantry was quickly thrown up. Now we are facing winter weather in Wisconsin. We realized we needed a better structure. So we bought a small 22 sq foot shed. We posted that this was happening on social media and looking for assistance to install it as both my wife and I are disabled.
The city planning commission found our post and reached out to talk about the pantry. Turns out that in my city, it is illegal to have an accessory structure in the front lawn. A shed is considered an accessory structure.
I calmly discussed what the concept was, what we were trying to do, and that we definitely want to comply with the law. So I asked for what we could do. It took several days to find out that the city has no definition of what actually constitutes an accessory structure from a yard decoration, like a post mounted birdhouse. Since the Free Little Pantry concept is a branch from the Little Free Library, I was able to get approval for something up to double the size and style of the Little Free Library. We’re working on doing that this weekend before temps plummet again.
Viewing the social media posts regarding this turn, it has been shared on Facebook over 3000 times. Our local news NBC 15, has even been asking about the situation. While neither my wife or I have been contacted by NBC 15, we may end up on the news.