FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014 A teenager in the Lakewood Park community is making a big impact with a small pantry outside her family\u2019s home. What began as a simple idea during the government shutdown has grown into a bustling, free food pantry that\u2019s drawing gratitude and support from across Fort Pierce.<\/p>\n
17-year-old Chloe Tucker said she launched the pantry when families temporarily lost access to SNAP benefits during the government shutdown.<\/p>\n
WATCH WPTV’S COVERAGE BELOW:<\/p>\n
Fort Pierce teen\u2019s free food pantry becomes lifeline for neighbors in need<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a way for someone to get food that they can\u2019t normally get and I believe everyone should have access to that,\u201d Tucker said.<\/p>\n
The shelves are stocked with nonperishable foods and hygiene items staples Tucker says many people can\u2019t always afford.<\/p>\n
As the pantry has grown, so has the feedback from residents who rely on it. Tucker keeps a collection of handwritten thank-you notes, each a reminder of how far her effort reaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are little notes that we\u2019ve gotten in our recommendations notes areas. [One says], \u2018Mom of 7. Such a blessing. Happy holidays,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Our Cassandra Garcia asked Tucker how those messages make her feel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice, it makes me realize that just because I\u2019m doing this and I\u2019m helping a couple of people, it\u2019s helping a lot more people because I\u2019m helping their family, their kids, the people that love them,\u201d Tucker said.<\/p>\n
Among the visitors Wednesday morning were Richard and Jeanette Chausse, who say fixed incomes and rising prices are hitting seniors particularly hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe bring stuff home and then we bring it to other people in our neighborhood because we live in a 55+ community and there\u2019s a lot of people that can\u2019t get out of their homes, so we bring it to them,\u201d Jeanette Chausse said.<\/p>\n
Tucker\u2019s mother, Amanda, said the response has been overwhelming.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t expect it to take off the way that it did, as fast as it did. It makes me not only proud of her, but the community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to see how well a community can come together to help one another just to help one another when they all see what good it could do,\u201d Chloe added.<\/p>\n
The pantry is located at 6803 Citrus Park Boulevard in Fort Pierce. It’s filled with items such as lentils, beans, jasmine rice and holiday stuffing, along with hygiene essentials. Tucker restocks it using overflow supplies stored inside her home, but says keeping up with demand will take the community’s help, especially during the holiday season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis over here is our overflow pile, we have a lot of canned goods, hygiene products. We are looking for more hygiene products, specifically soaps and shampoos,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For Tucker, the effort is all about giving back to the neighborhood she cares so much about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014 A teenager in the Lakewood Park community is making a big impact with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[3535,12440,23536,37606,171,173,172,1189],"class_list":{"0":"post-62295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-food-insecurity","9":"tag-food-pantry","10":"tag-free-food","11":"tag-lakewood-park","12":"tag-port-st-lucie","13":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","14":"tag-port-st-lucie-news","15":"tag-thanksgiving"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}