During the 2020 pandemic, the Rotary Club of Lakewood launched the Little Free Pantry initiative — a network of neighborhood pantry cabinets providing 24/7, no-barrier access to food and hygiene items across Lakewood, Tillicum, and Steilacoom. No applications. No ID required. No questions asked. Just a cabinet on a post, stocked by the community, open to anyone.
The project grew. By 2025, seven pantries were operating across the South Sound, supported by five community drop-off sites. What started as a pandemic response had become a permanent piece of local infrastructure — filling gaps in a community where food insecurity is a real and measurable problem.
The Food Desert Context
Lakewood isn't a wealthy suburb. The ALICE data — Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed — tells a harder story. These are households that work, often more than one job, but still can't consistently afford basics like food, housing, and healthcare. They don't qualify for most assistance programs. They fall between the safety net and stability.
The little free pantry model works precisely because it has no eligibility requirements. Anyone can take. Anyone can give. The cabinet doesn't know the difference between someone in crisis and someone leaving a can of soup on their way to work. That's the point.
The Map
Lakewood Rotary had a PDF map of the pantry locations — a static document that lived in emails and meeting materials. What they needed was something anyone could pull up on a phone, with directions, photos, and current needs. That's a Leaflet map project.
The interactive map shows all seven pantry locations with Rotary-branded markers, rich popups with directions links, and photo galleries showing the different cabinet styles across the network — wood cabinets, metal cabinets, repurposed furniture. Each location has its own character because each was built by a different part of the community.
The technical stack is deliberately minimal — plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, Leaflet with CARTO Voyager tiles, hosted on GitHub Pages. No frameworks, no dependencies, no maintenance burden. The Rotary doesn't have a developer on staff. The map needs to work without anyone tending it.
What's Most Needed
Drop-off sites are located across the city — full addresses and hours are on the map. Items should be unexpired, shelf-stable, and in original packaging. Hygiene products are consistently among the most-needed and least-donated items.
GIS as Community Infrastructure
This project sits at a different register than the rest of my work. There's no satellite data, no spectral classification, no GitHub Actions cron job. It's a map with seven points on it and some photos. The technical lift was light.
But a map that makes it easier for someone to find food at 2am, or easier for a volunteer to know where to drop off a bag of groceries — that has a different kind of value than a 12-month lumber stockpile time series or a live volcano dashboard. The skills are the same. The application is closer to home.
"Anyone can take. Anyone can give. The cabinet doesn't know the difference."
I live in Lakewood. I work in geospatial. When the Rotary needed a map, the answer was obvious.
The interactive map is live at brooksgroves.com/little-free-pantry. To donate or volunteer, contact the Rotary Club of Lakewood at [email protected].