Food 4 All is a little library for food
Food 4 All is a little library for food
Taylor Petersen has created a free little food pantry outside his business just south of downtown
You’ve probably heard of little libraries – there are several in town – but have you ever heard of a little food pantry? Thanks to Taylor Petersen of Petersen Plumbing, Sebastopol now has one of those as well.
It’s called Food 4 All, and it’s located on the little smidge of Palm Avenue that connects South Main Street and Petaluma Avenue, in the side yard of Petersen’s plumbing business at 698 Petaluma Avenue.
It looks basically like a potting bench, with its shelves filled with food.
Petersen was inspired to create Food 4 All by his Christian faith.
“I was blessed with that property in 2020, and I believe the Big Dog upstairs—which is what I believe in—blessed me with this for a purpose. And I said, ‘You know, what is this? This is meant for something else—it’s not about me, it’s about others, and there’s something that needs to be done here.’”
Then he thought about the little library concept.
“I really liked the mentality of a little library,” he said. “It's just really beautiful. So I thought, why don't we have something like that for food? And so that really fired up my motivation to get it going.”
“And, as I say, the details will follow. I didn’t know anything about how to do this, but you just get it going and you start to create buzz. I even got an email recently asking ‘How do I donate?’”
Petersen first set up the Food 4 All stand in November of 2022.
At first, he tried to stock it with fresh organic produce (supplied by Pacific Market) but because of the location’s sunny southern exposure, the produce didn’t last very long. A neighbor built a little awning to protect the shelves from the elements, but even that wasn’t enough—and Petersen, who is exploring creating a nonprofit, began to worry about the liability of having fresh food just out in the open.
“So I made the decision to hang tight for the moment and just do the best canned food that we can that will also have some shelf life.”
Petersen regularly stocks the shelves with canned food, but so do some of his neighbors and he’s even seen people he doesn’t know stop and drop off food. He also sees people—including people he knows—come to pick up food as well.
“I've seen people that stop and they drop off whatever they can, and other people in the neighborhood that you would perhaps or that I would think they're okay, but they can’t afford food.”
“Food for All is about that community connection,” he said. “This is about the neighborhood, the community—and can we come together for our neighbors, first and foremost, that literally cannot afford food.”
“As a community, we need to sort out what can be done—I mean, there's things going on. There are people right here in Sebastopol who can’t afford food (including the homeless, who are human beings too). So how about less talking and more doing?” he said. “I'm sure many of us can set aside $30-40 bucks for canned food, and with that, we can really make a big change…It's pretty beautiful and amazing to see it in action.”
You can reach Taylor Petersen at food4all@gmail.com.