Little Free Failure of Capitalism - Restock: October 2024
Read this online at https://lffc.us/posts/restock-2024-10/.
Welcome to the Restock! One new meta-item this month: you can now subscribe to this blog as an email newsletter if you prefer. (We also now feature compliant RSS and Atom feeds for the site.)
Updates and Changes
Art : we started putting artwork in the right-hand cabinet each day, along with zines of various sorts (ranging from LGBTQ rights to native plant gardening in Western Washington)! Want to add art to our rotating gallery? Check out our Call for Art !
Lighting : we got the lighting on each shelf online, as well as some colored lights at the edge of the roof, to make the whole thing both more accessible and less sketchy-looking at night. (I’m hoping to have the lights do fun things (like react to the doors opening) soon, but that part isn’t done yet.) There’s a new night photo on the about page!
New items : we added ponchos (the “disposable” kind) at the beginning of the month, and now at the end, we have begun stocking the UW/LilLabs lead tests! We’re delighted to be able to provide free lead testing (both object and soil) to the community, given how much lead contamination is prevalent in South Seattle .
We also finished distributing the first order we made of socks—240 pairs in two months. Worry not: we have new thermal socks (heavyweight, wool-blend) which is what we’ll stock going forward! We’re also planning to add a few more items next month, and we will rebalance a few things to get some more shelf space.
Charging : we had been toying with the idea of providing USB batteries so that people could charge devices without standing around at the LFFC. The USB batteries would be marked explicitly as loaners, not gifts, and then we could recharge them and distribute them again. With great expectations, we placed a box of batteries and signage at the foot of LFFC.
What we found is that while we hoped that people would borrow the batteries and return them later, that wasn’t really feasible given the circumstances of people who needed them. We wish the batteries’ new owners the best of luck, but it’s not something we’ll keep distributing; it’s simply not sustainable.
We also found that some LFFC guests actually want to charge while standing there; in particular, people who are in the neighborhood only in transit, and come across the LFFC, may need charging services and not want to take on the responsibility of returning batteries later. Accordingly, we added a high-speed charger on top of the naloxone. One guest decided that the charger itself was a gift, which happens; the replacement charger, installed earlier this week, is substantially more physically secured in the space.
As with everything LFFC, charging has been an experiment, and we’ve learned some things about how not to do it; at the same time, we’re glad to be able to provide services that people request. (Keep those suggestions coming!)
Monthly Usage
This month, we distributed:
- 144 pairs of socks
- 270 Band-Aids
- 14 CoBan rolls
- 15 gauze pads
- 153 nitrile gloves
- 54 masks (N95 and KF94)
- 5 tubes of sunscreen (still useful in the winter!)
- 56 doses of ibuprofen
- 31 pairs of earplugs
- 66 pairs of handwarmers
- 34 ponchos
- 24 pencils
- 10 bars of soap
- 71 tampons
- 27 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
- 120 condoms, and 64 lubricant packets
- 8 boxes (16 doses) of naloxone
Our COGGA for this month is $395.31, not including naloxone, condoms, lubricants, or lead tests (all of which are provided by outside groups at no cost to us).
We received one donation from a supporter who wishes to remain anonymous. Thank you so much for your generosity!
Conclusion
That’s it for this month’s Restock! If there’s more information you’d like to know, please feel free to use our Suggestions Form or email us at info@lffc.us .