On the front porch of a Cary home is a cabinet filled with food with a sign that reads, “Free Little Pantry.” The cabinet is a way for anyone to anonymously pick up food with no strings attached.

The pantry was started by Cary resident Cindy Straeten in October, when the government shut down for 43 days, leaving hundreds of thousands of government workers without pay for weeks and millions of people uncertain about their SNAP benefits. During that time, northern Illinois food pantries saw a major increase in clients.

Straeten, who works as a substitute teacher for Westfield Community School in Algonquin, cleaned out her pantry of items she wanted to give away and posted them for free on social media.

About a month later, Straeten decided to make the pantry a permanent fixture in the neighborhood. She ordered a cabinet online and started stocking it. Neighbors soon began taking it upon themselves to ensure it was stocked with a variety of items from rice to vegetables.

“This probably isn’t just a now thing,” she said.

Straeten doesn’t know who is helping the pantry and who is being helped by it. That complete anonymity is something she strives for, so people don’t have to feel awkward and can simply help themselves.

“There are multiple people who are doing things for the pantry, and I don’t know who they are,” she said. “It’s kind of a neat thing that people are just helping.”

How fast the food gets taken ebbs and flows, but it gets restocked about once a week on average. Popular items include shelf-stable milk, pasta and canned meats. Straeten said she would like more people to take advantage of it because she has plenty to offer.

“It’s not being used as often as I would love it to be used because I think there’s more need,” she said.

Straeten was inspired by a friend in the Baltimore area, who started a communal refrigerator where neighbors donate precooked meals. She knew she couldn’t consistently make meals and manage a refrigerator, but scaled it back to something more practical.

Her little free food pantry is not the only one, but Straeten said it’s still not widely known.

“I think there’s a lot out there,” she said. “It would be awesome if they were as common as the little free libraries.”

As for the future of this little free pantry in Cary, Straeten has no specific goals. All she is determined to do is continue helping people in the small ways that she can.

“I don’t really, at this moment, have goals. I just want to help,” she said.

Updates are posted on her Facebook page titled Free Little Pantry, Cary at bit.ly/FreeLittlePantryCary.