Marge Hollis · Findlay, Ohio
The Pantry Doors of Findlay
A retired third-grade teacher turned her late husband's woodworking shop into fourteen little free pantries — and quietly changed how Findlay feeds itself.
When Marge Hollis retired from Jacobs Primary in 2019, she thought she'd spend her time on the garden. Then the pandemic hit Findlay, and the garden turned into something else.
“Books are lovely, but some of my old students' families needed dinner more than they needed a paperback.”
— Marge Hollis
Eleven days
The first box
Marge taught herself Gene's table saw from YouTube videos. The first pantry box took her eleven days and, by her own account, looked 'like a birdhouse that had been in an argument.'
Trinity Lutheran
Stocked and bolted
She bolted it to a post outside Trinity Lutheran and stocked it with peanut butter, pasta, and canned peaches.
Two days
Empty in two days
It emptied in two days. She built another. That one emptied faster.
Five years on
Fourteen boxes
Fourteen pantry boxes now stand across Findlay and Ada, every one cut, sanded, painted, and sealed in Gene's shop.
Last March
The windstorm
A box lost its roof in a windstorm and was rebuilt within the week — this time with cedar shingles.
The food in the boxes comes from neighbors, church groups, and one anonymous farmer who leaves flats of eggs on her porch every other Thursday and has never once knocked.
9,400lbs
of food moved across the network last year
The boxes have rules, sort of. "Take what you need, leave what you can," Marge says. "That's the whole constitution. I didn't want committees. Committees are where casseroles go to die."
Sixty-two neighbors
A group chat with sixty-two members coordinates who covers which box. The neighbors handle most of the restocking now.
The fairgrounds route
High schoolers from Findlay High take the two boxes near the fairgrounds as a service project.
The kitchen map
Marge keeps a laminated map of all fourteen boxes taped inside a kitchen cabinet, tally marks for every restock run.
Numbered doors
She still writes a number on the inside of every door — the box's order in the sequence, one through fourteen.
“Gene numbered everything he built. It felt right to keep counting.”
— Marge Hollis
Asked whether she'll stop at fourteen, Marge laughs. "The garage is heated. Winter's long. I wouldn't bet on it."
By Ryan Sites · August 16, 2026