Restock: September 2024
(Many people asked us to set up an email newsletter, and we’ve just now gotten it done! Accordingly, here’s the Restock from the end of September; going forward, you can expect to receive this at the end of each month (including in 10 days). If you’d rather not be subscribed, please unsubscribe at the bottom and we won’t bug you anymore.)
Hello, world! We set the kiosk up over Labor Day Weekend, and have been touched by the warm welcome from our neighbors. Thank you to everyone who has said hi, left comments (or in one case, bottles of water!), and given suggestions. In particular, thank you to everyone who has come by and taken what you wished. We’re here for you, after all.
Our intention is to post monthly usage data, as well as key updates. This being the first month, there are a lot of updates, so let’s start there!
Updates and Changes
A survey from the state naloxone distribution program suggested condom distribution might be helpful, so we put some in–and were surprised to see they were gone instantly. We also received a request from one client to distribute more. After looking at sourcing condoms ourselves, we realized that it’s hard to achieve all our goals on our own:
Large quantity
A variety of brands/sizes
Some non-latex in the mix
Affordable
(Each of these is doable individually at small scale, but it turned out to be difficult to get them all done if we weren’t willing to buy, say, several tens of thousands.) Accordingly, we reached out to King County Public Health, who have a robust condom distribution program (check out their condom cubes!), and they were kind enough to allow us to distribute some of their condoms and lubricants.
We have also added earplugs (for anyone, but in particular for people sleeping in locations where they can’t control the ambient noise), ibuprofen (a Katy suggestion), rain ponchos (another Katy suggestion) and pencils (our suggestions pencils kept wandering off, suggesting a need!) this month. A planned seasonal addition, handwarmers, have also landed this month; as Seattle enters its Long Dark phase, we decided to start putting these out immediately, even though the temperature hasn’t gotten too bad just yet.
Landing tomorrow: an initial loadout of zines, and our first month of the Little Free Art Gallery! Each day we’ll display a new art piece, or an hilarious meme from the Internet. We’d prefer more art submissions, so if you want to join in the fun, check out https://lffc.us/art to learn how! Our very first day will be from a Friend of the LFFC who we’re delighted to feature. If a piece speaks to you, take it! (Not the frame, yet, though eventually we’ll have those available too.) All pieces are also postcards, so they can be mailed to others to brighten their days as well.
Monthly Usage
This month, we distributed:
73 pairs of socks
90 band-aids
8 CoBan rolls
14 gauze pads
99 gloves
28 masks
15 tubes of sunscreen
10 doses of ibuprofen
6 earplugs
13 sets of handwarmers
6 pencils
17 bars of soap
58 tampons
26 menstrual pads
A bunch of condoms (this count’s a bit fuzzy for reasons, though it’s at least 19)
9 boxes (18 doses) of naloxone
Our COGGA is $202.31, not including naloxone, condoms, or lubricants.
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! We’ll try our best to do this every month. 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.