Community Safety Nets: Looking Beyond Government Aid - Alex Forsythe (POY 67)

For those of us who want society to take care of more people when they need it, it can be depressing to watch our governments constantly strip our social safety nets down to the threads. But in a way, there's good news. Our governments don't have a monopoly on social safety nets. I talked with a community organizer who's building a community safety net in Alabama using Little Free Pantries. I asked her what motivates her, how food insecurity overlaps with so many other issues, and how any of us can get involved in the same type of work that she does. Where we I'm Josh Morgan. That conversation is coming up next on the Plural of youf the podcast about people helping people. I'm an applied sociologist and aspiring helper living in Huntsville, Alabama, and I'm on a mission to promote two beliefs in my life that humans are social beings and because of that, we all benefit when we help one another. I publish this podcast on the 15th of every month to share how we can all be better helpers for those that we care about. If you haven't already, subscribe to the Plural Review wherever you get your podcasts. And if you wouldn't mind, sign up for the monthly newsletter. The newsletter has media pics, occasional blog posts, news from previous guests, and things like that, so sign [email protected] Newsletter for now, put this episode on in the.

Background of whatever you're doing and I.

Hope you enjoy the show. This month. I'd like to introduce you to Alex Forsyth. She's a community organizer from Gurley, Alabama that's spelled G U R L E Y and is a town about 15 to 20 minutes east of Huntsville in northern Alabama. She works as a site director for after school programs by day, but in her spare time you can probably find her restocking Little Free pantries across northern Alabama. She's also passionate about other issues besides food insecurity and education. Those include reproductive justice and poverty. She also devotes her spare time to several organizations that serve at the intersection of all these issues. Now, I first covered Little Free pantries on this podcast in 2017 when I talked to the founder of the project, Jess McLeod. The project has been on my mind since then. That's because it represents something called a community safety net, which is a type of social safety net that's entirely supported by members of a local community. Because federal and state governments are always finding ways to cut funding to their social safety nets, the Little Free Pantry project has become way more popular and unfortunately, way more necessary. We'll talk about how Alex got involved in all of these things in just a moment. But before we do, I wanted to comment on how passionate Alex is about her work. She is a force for what she believes in, and the work she does can be especially thankless because she's propping up a community safety net almost by herself. She has people supporting her, of course, but she drives in a circuit several times a month to restock all of these little Free pantries on her route, usually with loved ones helping her. But she often doesn't get recognition for all those hours that she puts in. To me, that's the sign of a true helper, someone who shows up for others consistently, even when those other people aren't always aware of the effort. That's why I'm glad Alex made time.

To talk with me, because I think.

She'S uniquely inspiring, and I hope you'll agree as you listen over the next few minutes. So here's my conversation with Alex Forsyth, community organizer and Little Free Pantry steward from Gurley, Alabama. So we first met at this new.

Community event series, Neighborly Huntsville, and you.

Gave a speech about some of the.

Things that you're up to, especially with the Little Free Pantry project here in Madison County.

And something I remember you saying was that your grandmother inspired you to get started with the Little Free pantries.

Is that right?

So 2014 is when I started doing volunteer work relating to food insecurity. My grandmother and I started volunteering together at Mana House. I was probably just barely 12 at the time. She had always been someone who wanted to find ways to help the community, wanted to give back. She was a wildlife rehabilitator. She. She always knew her neighbors and was always first to, like, come over and offer a helping hand. And she inspired those things in me. And we loved working at Mana House together. We would. We would go at least once a week, and that kind of became a habit for us. And then when she started getting to where she couldn't do it anymore, I continued it on in high school.

Now, is Mana House a place? Is that for those experiencing homelessness?

It's for anyone that's experiencing food insecurity. They're open. Oh, I see Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, they do, like, food distribution boxes. The USDA donates most of their stuff, and then local farmers got it.

Okay.

So you just help pass out. We would help make sandwiches, and we would help prep the food boxes and sort through donations and that sort of thing.

Gotcha. Okay.

So when that started getting too much for her, you know, I I took over, and I bring my friends, and we would go volunteer, and student council would go sometimes when we were in high school. And then when the pandemic happened, you know, she was antsy being cooped up at home, and there wasn't really anything that she could do to help without putting herself at risk of getting sick. And I took care of her and my other grandmother, as well as going to college during the time for my scholarship. You know, they wanted us to tackle some sort of issue in the community. So off the top of my head, I was like, well, food insecurity is one that we were really passionate about. So we built a free pantry together for one of the local churches, and it kind of escalated from there into what it is now. She actually passed away about a year ago.

I'm sorry to hear that.

Thank you. Every time. Every time I go and I stock the pantries or I make any sort of, like, upward momentum and, like, expanding the pantries and feels like she's there with me.

Oh.

She was a citizen, like, Like a community member of girly for over 30 years. So getting to start Girly's first pantry this year was everything. And I wish she could have been there for that.

Yeah.

Now it.

Was it a situation where she raised you or were your. Were your parents in the picture as well?

So my grandparents and my dad kind of all co. Raised me. Gotcha. But I lived with my grandparents for my entire life.

I see.

Okay.

So they basically instilled those values that you still have today as far as helping others.

Yes. And my dad. My dad was right there. He worked all the time. He was blue collar worker, but anytime he could help out, he was there carrying on the cause, too. He's the one that tries to make sure that I don't get overwhelmed by everything because I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew.

Well, that's where it leads to my.

Next question, because I know you're involved in a lot of different things, not just working with the little free pantries. I know you're involved, for example, with the Yellowhammer Fund, which, from what I understand, they provide assistance for reproductive rights and reproductive care in the state of Alabama.

Yes, in their mind, and in my mind, too. Food security directly relates to reproductive justice impacts, how you're able to raise a family, how you're able to live your life. And then the free pantries also help tackle period poverty. I mean, they provide access to menstrual hygiene products as well. So they've actually given me grant funding to play around with. Last year, they gave me $5,000 for the pantries, and I reported to them. I showed them how I was using it, and they were impressed with what I was doing and happy with the work that I was doing. So they gave me $25,000 this year to work on expanding and working with them. They do so much for the community. They provide safer sex supplies. They provide support to mothers. It's really a full spectrum of support that they provide. And then with. With their funding, you know, I try to stock baby supplies in the pantries, period products, as well as food items. So they've been a big blessing with that. And then when I go to, like, Pride events and stuff, I pass out safer sex supplies with some of that funding as well.

And then I think you messaged me recently and said that you were involved now in an organization called United Women.

Of Color as well.

Yes. United Women of Color Huntsville is partnering with me and with the pantry movement itself as part of their initiative to work on combating food insecurity in Madison County.

Wow.

They're also working with the People's Patch, which is A and M's free garden. They have a whole community garden that you can come and pick vegetables and volunteer and take what you need for your family.

Oh, I wasn't aware of that.

Huh. Okay.

But all that leading up to. For me to ask, like, how did you pick food insecurity as a cause? I guess it's through your grandmother. Or is that what keeps you coming back is kind of like just reflecting fondly on working with your grandmother, on. On those efforts with the pantries and such.

That. But also all. All the things in. In my life that I'm passionate about, because I'm very. I'm passionate about tackling food insecurity and food waste, really. But also education and reproductive justice. Those things that they all touch one another. You can't focus on one of them without focusing on that bigger picture, because it all connects.

Makes sense.

So if you're working with all of that, then you see the need in other areas, and you're. And you're asking yourself, well, what can I do to kind of help this across the board? And if you're looking too far at the bigger picture, it gets overwhelming. Which is why it's so helpful for me to just kind of focus on Madison county or north Alabama, because I've always been interested in, like, activism and bettering the community or the state. But it gets daunting unless you kind of pick. Pick and choose your battles.

Yes.

Yeah.

That.

That's something we've actually talked about on.

This podcast in the last few episodes, is kind of like picking a lane and staying in it, because it is. It is easy when you're a helper to want to take on as much as possible, and it can get overwhelming. Like, even if you just look outside your community, it's like, oh, wait a minute, I'm only one person.

So it sounds like you have the right approach.

It's trying to keep it local.

It's very hard to be educated and informed on as many things as you have to be to look outside that scope, too, just because there's so much nuance to everything. I had to step away from trying to do too. Too many things and just kind of pull in, especially because the volunteer work, I mean, I also work in education, and, you know, that takes a lot of my heart and a lot of my time, too.

Yeah. Yeah. A lot of emotional labor that you have to spread across all these different projects and then your day job, too. Yeah.

So how do you keep up with.

Everything that you're involved with?

Like, how do you keep from getting overwhelmed?

Well, my secret is that I am always constantly overwhelmed, but I am very lucky to be surrounded with people that care about what I'm working on as much as I do. My pantrying crew on the weekends, it's my two best friends and I. And then sometimes my dad or my other grandmother.

Oh, nice. So you're not doing it alone. That's. I'm glad to hear that.

I have some. I have some great people, and then there's people that I work with that bring me donations or like, hey, I'm interested in this. Can you tell me more about it? And it helps a lot to know that there's people out there that are just as invested in it as I am. Or I go to the pantries, and I see that it's already had a beautiful stock, and there's wonderful things in there, and I just have to add a few things or organize it a little, and it makes it all worth it. Or I talk to somebody at the pantry while I'm stocking it that's they're getting things that they need, and we just have a casual conversation, and I just know that I'm doing the right thing.

Do you have a. Like, a favorite story or two where you kind of touched on it just then, but doing this kind of work where you feel like all this effort is making a difference in someone else's life?

Well, the. I guess the Only drawback, really is that a lot of times you don't get to talk to the people that you're helping this way. Because while it is hands on and it is direct care, you're not necessarily interacting with the people, but just the response of, hey, I want to start this in my neighborhood. Or like people that have reached out to me and been like, oh, well, I didn't know about this, but I got a giant pack of stuff from Sam's Club and I didn't like any of it. So I took it to the pantry to make sure that it didn't go to waste and somebody else got to have it. I have been working to get the free pantry and girly started since I started free pantry work in 2021. And it was no's across the board. No matter who I asked, no's all the time because people were worried about liability or they just weren't interested or it wasn't their mission. So my best friend who I work with, she works in education with me, she surprised me by having the kids work on it and got the senior center to agree to host it.

Oh, wow.

That has been honestly my win for the record books lately. I get to check on it when I go to work, and it's always in flux. People are taking things, people are stocking things, people are talking about it and it's. It's everything. To me, that's so awesome.

What is it about the little free.

Pantry model in particular that draws you so intensely?

Because so many organizations around here, and I'm not saying that they're not doing great work because I. I love seeing all the different organizations that are working in the community, but so many of them have requirements, whether it's. You have to have the burden of proof of showing your income and demonstrating your need, which is a lot for people. Sometimes I don't even know where half of my paperwork is, it would be very difficult for me to try and go to ask for help. Or you have to deal with seeing people, you know, when you go to ask for help, which can be super embarrassing. And you know that I have my pride. I don't like to ask for help when I need it. Or you have to believe the same way that they believe, or you have to attend classes or go to Bible study or these type of things to get support that you need just to stay alive. Free pantries don't require any of that. If you have a need, you can just go and get what you need. You don't have to. You don't have to embarrass yourself. You don't have to feel uncomfortable. You don't have to perform any sort of way just to get the basics you need to live your life. And I really wish that we could move towards that model across the board when it comes to food resources and just basic resources that people need.

Yeah, I agree with that. And I've noticed, and this is me, I was a transplant. I lived in north Alabama for a lot of years and then moved away and then recently came back to the Huntsville area. And I've noticed that there are. It seems like there are a lot.

Of organizations doing a lot of good.

Work for people like, like those that you serve. But also there's like a silo mentality where everybody's kind of working in their own little areas and not working together.

Right.

And it feels like little free pantries bypass that in a way because they do allow people to give and take without going through that whole system.

Absolutely. And you don't have to worry about the barrier of, like, time accessibility either, because a lot of traditional food pantries have set times and dates, and sometimes it's just once a month or maybe once or twice a week. And a lot of people either work during those hours or don't have reliable transportation.

That's true.

We talked a little bit about how.

All of these things that you're involved.

With relate to one another.

I was wondering if you could go a little bit deeper on that, like, as far as reproductive justice, reproductive rights, and food insecurity. Like, how do all those things come together in your opinion?

If you don't have the access to basic needs, basic necessities, then you're not going to be able to improve anything in your life. So that directly impacts how you're able to. To raise and have a family. I mean, one in four children in Alabama are food insecure.

Wow.

It's one of the worst in the. In the nation. Alabama is high in maternal mortality, they're high in infant mortality. And part of it is because we don't have access to basic health care and basic nutrition. I mean, they keep trying to cut, snap, Medicare, all the things that we need to have healthy, safe families. And by anything, any. Any marginal improvements that we can provide, whether or not it's through free parentry work or through just advocating for better social policies in the state, you were actively paving a way for people to have healthier, safer families.

I appreciate you sharing that.

I was wondering, I mean, I know just from my background that all of these things do relate if you go far enough, like in the social analysis. But I appreciate you putting those things together. For me, that makes a lot of sense.

In Huntsville as well, there's a lot of food deserts, which are places where people don't have access to healthy, affordable foods. A lot of our schools are located in or around food deserts. I think about 15 in the Madison county school system are located around food deserts.

I wasn't aware of that.

And then, you know, the school that I work at is a Title 1 school, which means 50% or more of our students are free and reduced lunch eligible. And then you have to consider the fact that they've. That we don't have summer feeding sites after the pandemic. You know, we had summer feeding sites where you could go and get free breakfast and free lunch. They have reduced that and cut most of those programs. So if you're getting free meals during the school year, but you're not getting them during the summer, we have to have a place for kids and families to get their food. We have to have some sort of supplemental option. And it's just not feasible to hope that they can get to mana house once a week if they're working nights or if they don't have reliable transportation. How are they going to be able to do that? If they have somewhere that they can access within walking distance of their community, or they have someone that they can reach out to and say, hey, could you stop by the free pantry and grab me a couple of cans of this until I can get to the grocery store? It helps. It is a. It's not a perfect solution, but it is a safety net. It is a very important safety net, in my opinion.

I'm glad you put it that way.

Because it is sort of like a citizen's or resident's safety net. When the government safety nets fail, then the citizens, people like us, can help fill in the gaps.

Right? Ideally, through this work, the more effort that we put into it, the more we expand the pantries locally, the stronger the safety net becomes and the more we start thinking about community care as a whole. Because, you know, growing up, I've lived in girly my entire life and I know most of my neighbors by name. I wouldn't have a problem knocking on their door and being like, hey, can I borrow a can of peas? But I don't think really many of us can say that anymore.

That's true.

At the end of the day, if we can't find a way to do that with each other, if we can't find a way to build those community safety nets, then I don't think we'll progress much farther than where. Where we are. So, ideally, this is just the beginning.

Yeah. Do you have a goal in mind for the work that you do, or.

Is it just to be of service?

Well, I kind of do have a goal. I don't know how feasible it is, but I think that's. I think that it's okay to have goals that are just a little bit out of reach, I suppose. But I really envision our community in which everyone at least has access to the basic things that they need, no matter the time of day. Like, no one is going without. Super unachievable. Probably. But can we at least try to get close to it? I think so.

And that's one way that the little free pantries that you run are going to help out with that. Because you run. My understanding is that you run at least the Facebook group anyway. Like, you run, like, the local group for Madison County.

I run the local group. I work on plotting different community access points on. I've created a Google map overlay for it. And the churches, the pantries, most of them started around 2020 in Huntsville. And I came onto the scene about a year later and just tried to fill in the gaps where I could. And then people started acting like I was an expert. And I was like, I guess I need to figure this out just because I kind of end up in the work and trying to help out and facilitate wherever I can. And I feel ridiculously under qualified most of the time, but I spend a lot of time doing research and trying to figure out what works better for certain pantries and where the need is the highest, and it changes. It's always cycling.

Yeah.

Well, something I've learned in talking to.

Various people over the years is, you know, half the battle is just showing up and then kind of listening to what people say they need. You don't necessarily have to have any special qualifications to do good work. It's just, like I said, showing up and having a good attitude about it.

I'm glad that it's going the way that it is, because there are days where I just. I kind of come home and I want to lay in bed and just tune it all out, just take a break from everything. And I don't. But there. There are a lot of days where it's heavy. All of this work is heavy. There isn't anything that I've dipped my hand into that isn't heavy. But if I. If I'm not doing something about it, then it feels even worse.

Yeah.

What I've learned in talking with people also is it takes a rare person to want to take on this kind of work because not everybody has that mindset like you just described. So I guess that's. That's my way of complimenting you, saying that you're a very special person for wanting to do it.

Thank you. I'm hoping that once we get more of an established network of the free pantries, that will branch out beyond that as well. There are initiatives in other cities that have an abundance of community gardens and community free fridges, and that is the avenue that I'm wanting to branch off into next. But there's a lot of work to be done still, for sure.

Yeah. I guess you don't necessarily know the people that you serve. Like, you probably have a general sense. But I'm wondering what's something that you would like for anyone who's listening to know about them?

I think that a lot of people just, on the surface, might underestimate them, but it's. From what I've been able to tell and discern just from doing the work, is that the people that are in need are also just as willing and just as invested in making sure that they help other people. You know, because some people come to the pantries to. To take things, but they. They trade something out from their pantry so that they're not leaving it empty.

Oh, I see.

If they're having a really hard time and they need to take quite a few things, they pay it forward as soon as they're able to, or they leave messages of kindness. In the pantry at St. Mark's somebody wrote in the very back of it with a permanent marker, thank you, and signed it with a heart.

Oh.

Like people. People are grateful. And people are. More often than not, people are willing to help and pay it forward after, you know, they've been in need as well. And anybody can need this sort of help, really. Anybody. I mean, I'm just one bad paycheck away from needing it sometimes myself. So it could be any of us. And the people that donate to the pantries or receive things from the pantries, I mean, they're from all walks of life. They might be down on their luck one week and then able to pay it forward the next month, or they might not have a home or a car. You never know. You're helping people from all walks of life.

Yeah.

That's a good way to put it.

Because so many people do live check to Paycheck. But I'm one of those weird people that thinks that everyone has goodness at their core. It's just, you know, they may have a lot of baggage to sort through to be able to kind of realize that about themselves. But it does sound like most of the people that you help out already have realized that to some extent, because they give back.

Right. I think it's a good testament to the goodness of people. Very much so. I mean, there are days, you know, that. That it's not easy, but a lot of days I. I go and I open up the pantry, and I'm like, geez, these people donated such wonderful things, and they're. They're using the pantry, and it's making a difference, and it. It's worth it. It's always worth it.

Yeah. So if somebody wanted to get involved with the kind of work that you do, whether it's the little free pantries or maybe it's something akin to the Yellowhammer fund where they live, or any of the other things that you're involved in, how would you suggest that people get started?

I got started specifically with the Little Free Pantry movement by finding the Little Free Pantry like national Facebook page. Their website's super informative. It gives you guides on how to build pantries. Frequently asked questions, because everyone loves to say the word liability. But luckily, there was case law in the 1990s that if you donate food and goods in good faith, that there really isn't liability.

Oh, interesting.

It's a good Samaritan act, so it provides information about all of that. So if you want to just become an advocate, you don't have to start huge. A lot of people think that if you're getting into this work, you have to start big and bold and grand. It's better to be okay with starting small. Reach out to local organizations and be like, hey, have you considered having a free pantry? Or do you have any sort of food security resources that I can help support? Do you do food giveaways? Can I volunteer with that? Or if you're not willing to bite off that big of a commitment or. And you think, well, maybe I'd like to do a little free library. Start there. Yeah. I mean, you can order kits to build those online for about a hundred bucks. And it's pretty easy to assemble. It's got all the instructions. My. My fourth graders can do it. They were. They were pretty happy with it. So it can be small, and sometimes it's as small as finding the resources that are in your neighborhood and in your area and sharing them, because a lot of people might not know about them. If you. If you see food giveaways, take a picture of the billboard, post it on Facebook, tag your friends, you don't know who might need it because it's so easy to think that everyone around you in your circle is doing as good as you are. A lot of times that's not the case, especially right now. Every. Everything's complicated and everything's expensive. Letting people know in your area, at your work, your family, your friends, your neighbors, what resources are available to them. And then as far as getting into the reproductive justice work, most states have at least one reproductive justice slash abortion fund. It's pretty easy to find. Most of them have at least Instagram and Facebook pages, and they do a lot of community outreach, community drives, period, product drives. So there's a lot of good ways to get involved with that as well.

Okay, well, thank you for sharing that. And like you said, it doesn't always have to be some grand thing. I know. Like, me personally, I've gotten tripped up with that in the past, thinking it's got to be some big spectacle, but really it just starts with, like, small acts and kind of building from there.

My dad's favorite thing to remind me is the old adage, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time. It doesn't have to be the whole, you don't have to do it all, but you have to do something, so just start somewhere. It doesn't have to be perfect either. Lord knows I make plenty of mistakes and mix up my emails and forget to do things. And I've had to double back to a pantry because I left my phone inside of it once.

Oh, my goodness.

It's easy to get caught up in it, but it doesn't have to be perfect as long as it's coming from the right place. And as long as you're open to learning, you're gonna make a difference.

So I don't know if you have places that you would direct people to follow you online. Is there anywhere, like, if someone wanted to learn more from you or learn more about you, that you were directing to.

I'm totally open for people to friend or follow me on my personal Facebook page, which is just Alex Forsyth. There's not too many of us out there. My last name is not too terribly common. And then if they're really interested in getting to the nitty gritty of my politics, which some people are, I suppose. I also have an Instagram and a Facebook under I write Activism.

I write activism.

Okay, cool.

Is there anything I haven't asked that you wanted to talk about?

I think that we have covered it all, but I would like to double down on the point that I, I know that I'm the one doing the speaking right now, but none of this, absolutely none of this is possible without the people in my life that are not only supporting me, but supporting the pantries. Because there, there is no way that this is just a one man show. I do, I do a lot of legwork. I'm not going to deny that. But without the community, without people continuously investing in this vision and working towards it, without my friends, without my family, none of this would be possible. Without the churches and other community organizations that are willing to say yes. Without the Girly Senior Center. That was like, I don't even need to ask any other questions. We're just going to tell you yes and go with it. I'm like, okay, that's terrifying. Sure.

Well, thank you for sharing that. Yeah, that's something I haven't really thought about much. But I guess for every helper there really is like a base of support that they have. Like, there's a social network that's, that's kind of lifting them up. So that's a good point. I'm glad you shared that. Okay, well, I'll let you go. Like I said, I really appreciate it and I'll be in touch.

Thank you so much. And if you need anything from me, I'm just an email away.

This is the Plural of youf. I'm Josh Morgan and if you like this episode, please sign up for the podcast monthly [email protected] newsletter.

I think you'll enjoy it, so check it out.

That's all for now. Thank you for being kind today. Take care.