FAIRFIELD – The network of little free pantries in Fairfield has been growing steadily for the past four years, and it has now crossed another frontier with the latest pantry outside Golden Magnolia Sanctuary where refrigerated food is available at all hours of the day.

A group of volunteers led by Mark Soth are putting the finishing touches on a shed on the west side of the building that contains a refrigerator. The purpose of this shed is to serve as a pantry for donated food available to anyone who needs it, and what separates this pantry from the others is that it gives the public refrigerated food 24/7.

This is the first pantry in Fairfield with round-the-clock refrigerator access, and it was the brainchild of Jonathan Lawrence, who works for Eat Greater Des Moines as a value chain coordinator and serves 10 counties in Southeast Iowa. Lawrence said Eat Greater Des Moines has created a network of 30-some community fridges in the Des Moines area that serve people in need. However, he said some of those are in churches and are only available when the church is open.

Since Lawrence is based in Fairfield, he looked for ways to extend the community fridge program here. He learned about the group Jefferson County Little Free Pantries after noticing the pantry outside Everybody’s Whole Foods, and that led him to contact Mark Soth and Steve Blum. They built some of the first little free pantries when the idea was getting off the ground about four years ago. Lawrence told them that his organization had a grant to get a refrigerator for a little free pantry.

“Most of the fridges in Des Moines are not in little free pantries, but there are some in sheds,” Lawrence said. “I thought that this was an awesome idea, and I felt like, if it’s built correctly, this could be a great outlet for people to get food whenever they need it.”

Lawrence approached the founder and director of Golden Magnolia Sanctuary, Tammy Haessler, to see if they could build the shed outside her building. Soth had agreed to lead the construction of the shed, and Fairfield resident Bob Ferguson organized a fundraiser for the building materials. Lloyd Westenberg also stepped forward to volunteer his services in performing the electrical work.

“It was a pleasure,” Westenberg said. “Mark recruited me, and he’s one of those people who inspires others to help. There should be more people like him. And Tammy at Golden Magnolia is doing such a wonderful thing, so how can you not want to help when you can?”

Haessler said the new little free pantry outside is perfect because she had been thinking about getting one anyway, and now she also has a place to put any leftovers from Golden Magnolia’s soup kitchen, which serves a free vegetarian dinner every Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

“Sometimes when we have leftovers, we try to send them home with people, but now it’s nice because we can package it up and put it in this fridge,” she said.

Haessler said that, though Golden Magnolia’s soup kitchen serves only plant-based food, she’s not putting any restrictions on the type of food that can be placed in the pantry’s refrigerator. She recommends that donors label and date their packages and, if they can, list any allergens the food contains.

Construction on the shed began in December and continued into January, though the crew had to take time off for the blizzards. By late January, the shed was enclosed, shelves were added so that patrons could stock dry goods, and the fridge was installed. In just the few weeks since it was finished, Jefferson County Health Center has already made a few trips to deliver food to the fridge. Haessler said word has already gotten out about the fridge, and that demand for food is high.

“As soon as we put food in, it empties out really quickly,” Haessler said.

Soth said he’s grateful to the people and businesses that donated cash and materials to build the shed, such as Keosauqua Lumber, Habitat ReStore and Robert Ducasse.

“I’m delighted at how many people came forward,” he said. “We have a supportive community.”

And Fairfield is also a needy community, as volunteers are finding out as more pantries are being built to meet the demand.

“I’m surprised by the food insecurity we have here now,” Soth said. “There’s a big need. All pantries are getting used, and maybe they don’t get filled up as much as we’d like.”

Soth mentioned that Sieda put a refrigerator in its lobby at 2200 W. Jefferson Ave. and stocked it with food. That’s gotten a lot of use in the year since it was installed.

Soth and Blum built eight or nine of the first little free pantries in Fairfield, and helped to start the snowball rolling down the hill that has now resulted in the construction of about 15 pantries in Jefferson County.

“Mark is the one who deserves a lot of credit,” Blum said. “He’s extremely generous. He’s invested a lot of time and money into a wood shop. Mark is the energy behind the construction and organization of these little free pantries. I became his helper, and I love it.”