Community pantry
Tue & Sat
Two afternoons a week the hall turns into a grocery store where everything is free. Fresh produce from three farms, bread from Marlow's, and staples you pick yourself off the shelf.
41,200 bags of groceries last year
Nobody on the east side goes without.
Groceries twice a week, supper every Thursday, help with the rent when a month goes wrong. Run by neighbors, out of one hall on Alder Street, since 2011.
Why we’re here
We started with a borrowed van and six neighbors who were tired of watching families choose between dinner and the heating bill. Fifteen years on, the choice still shouldn’t exist — so we keep the shelves full and the door open.
Everything we do happens within a mile of the hall, and everyone who walks in is treated like a shopper, not a case number. The people deciding where the money goes live on these streets too.
Mara Okafor, founding volunteer
What happens on Alder Street
Four programs, one hall, and the numbers from last year — counted by the volunteers who did the work.
Thursday supper
Thursdays
A hot meal at long tables, cooked by volunteers and eaten together. Kids eat first, seconds are expected, and whoever's left helps stack the chairs.
9,860 plates served
Rent & utility bridge
By appointment
One-time help paid straight to a landlord or utility, so a bad month doesn't become an eviction. Decided within a week, by people who live here.
318 households kept housed
Warm winter
Nov – Mar
Coats, boots, space heaters and emergency heating oil from November to March — and a volunteer who'll carry the heater up the stairs.
1,140 coats handed out
Every dollar, in a hundred cents.
Here is where a dollar given to us went last year, drawn to scale — one tick for every cent. Our books are audited each spring and the full report is public.
87¢
Programs
Groceries, suppers, rent help and winter heat, delivered on Alder Street.
8¢
Running the place
Rent on the hall, the van's insurance, one part-time coordinator.
5¢
Asking for more
Printing, postage, and the spring supper that pays for itself twice.
Pull a tab. We’ll handle the rest.
Every amount below buys something specific this month. Pick the one you can picture — it all goes to the same place.
Help a neighbor this week
Tear off a tab and give online in two minutes. Card, bank transfer, or a monthly gift that keeps the pantry stocked through the lean months.
Rather give monthly? $15 a month stocks one shelf, all year.
Donate monthlyCome by the hall.
Shopping the pantry, dropping off a bag of groceries, or just curious — the door on Alder Street is open, and someone will show you around.
214 Alder Street
Riverton
Hours
- Pantry
- Tue 4–7 pm · Sat 10 am–1 pm
- Community supper
- Thursdays, 6 pm
- Donation drop-off
- Mon–Fri, 9 am–5 pm
Closed on federal holidays — we post the make-up day on Instagram.
Can’t make it over? Give from wherever you are.
Donate