CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When Wakeup Charlotte's Ruby Durham spoke to Alexandria Brown at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, she only had one grab-and-go food pantry on Fannie Circle and Gene Avenue in the Grier Heights neighborhood.
"It's filled with non-perishables, personal items paper goods school supplies," Brown said.
Flash forward to 2022, Brown is replenishing two new locations with the help of her family and the community.
Due to demand, she added pantry locations on Billingsley and Marvin Roads and Leroy and Sam Drenan Roads.
"I'm originally from DC and they have a lot of corner stores there but here I didn't see as much so I thought of making a resemblance, like a mini corner store feel," Brown said.
This is all because of a Girl Scout Challenge to spend 80 hours making a difference in her community.
Living in Grier Heights, Brown has noticed people walking 20 minutes or more to put food on the table due to a lack of transportation.
Now a senior at Myers Park High school with dual enrollment at CPCC, she hopes to add two more locations before heading off to college to make it a total of five pantries throughout Grier Heights for people in need.
"Definitely think that this could make a change to somebody, even if you're not in need anybody can take and give it to somebody that they know," Brown said.
To learn more about Little Free Pantries and Alexandria's mission visit pridemagazineonline.com. There's also information in the article on how to drop off donations.
Contact Ruby Durham at rdurham@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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