Little Free Failure of Capitalism

Restock: February 2026

2026-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

Welcome to the Restock!

Updates and Changes

No major changes this month.

Monthly Usage

This month, we had 5 outgoing completed calls made from our Futel phone, as well as 15 calls made from our Connections phone at the Dunlap Seattle Community Fridge (SCF) site, and 5 calls made from our Connections phone at the Estelita’s Library SCF site.

267 pairs of thermal socks
159 warm hats
166 pairs of warm gloves
261 pairs of handwarmers
1000 Band-Aids
56 CoBan rolls
39 ABD gauze pads, and 63 non-adherent pads
540 nitrile gloves
148 packets of Vaseline
19 sunscreen packets
253 masks (N95 and KF94)
180 doses of ibuprofen
58 pairs of earplugs
67 ponchos
62 pencils
133 body wash/shampoo/shaving gel packets
175 toothbrushes
85 tubes of toothpaste
163 tampons
170 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
386 packets of hand sanitizer
131 paper bags
154 razors
320 condoms, 18 internal (“female”) condoms, and 237 lubricant packets
36 boxes (72 doses) of naloxone nasal spray, and 15 kits (30 doses) of injectable naloxone

Our COGGA for this month is $1191.35, not including naloxone, condoms, or lubricants (all of which are provided by outside groups at no cost to us).

We received donations this month from Harley LaRoux, Angharad Caceres, Rebecca Francis, Bill O’Connor, and Andrew Smart. Thank you all so much!

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.

Restock: January 2026

2026-01-31T00:00:00+00:00

Welcome to the Restock!

Updates and Changes

No major changes this month. One point of potential interest, for folks living in the Seattle area: I’ll be speaking about at Ignite Seattle on March 10, 2026, at Benaroya Hall. I like the Ignite format (20 auto-advancing slides, 15s per slide), and I’ve given Ignite talks elsewhere before, but I’ve not made it to Ignite Seattle before. Hence, don’t be like me and keep forgetting to go, come join us and heckle me.

Monthly Usage

This month, we had 10 outgoing completed calls made from our Futel phone, as well as 91 (!) calls made from our Connections phone at the Dunlap Seattle Community Fridge (SCF) site, and 9 calls made from our Connections phone at the Estelita’s Library SCF site.

294 pairs of thermal socks
180 warm hats
182 pairs of warm gloves
304 pairs of handwarmers
940 Band-Aids
67 CoBan rolls
40 ABD gauze pads, and 56 non-adherent pads
543 nitrile gloves
123 packets of Vaseline
39 sunscreen packets
208 masks (N95 and KF94)
113 doses of ibuprofen
71 pairs of earplugs
78 ponchos
107 pencils
112 body wash/shampoo/shaving gel packets
181 toothbrushes
101 tubes of toothpaste
51 tampons
74 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
468 packets of hand sanitizer
92 paper bags
170 razors
337 condoms, 13 internal (“female”) condoms, and 254 lubricant packets
23 boxes (46 doses) of naloxone nasal spray, and 13 kits (26 doses) of injectable naloxone

Our COGGA for this month is $1405.57, not including naloxone, condoms, or lubricants (all of which are provided by outside groups at no cost to us).

We received donations this month from Harley LaRoux, Rebecca Francis, Andrew Smart, and one anonymous donation. Thank you all so much!

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.

Restock: December 2025

2026-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Welcome to the Restock!

Updates and Changes

No big changes this month, but I was doing some travel for part of it; thanks so much to Katy, our fill-in restocker, for making sure LFFC kept working while I was traveling.

It’s somewhat amusing in December of all times to hear folks who say they’re “Christian” also pushing “tough love” for the houseless, saying that if they “refuse to work” then they should get nothing. There are… a lot of bad assumptions to unpack in that sort of statement, but people not too familiar with the deep workings of (hateful) Christian sects might assume that the theology was at least supportive of the statement. A friend of mine gave a sermon to his upstate NY congregation a few weeks back on where that idea comes from in the Bible—and why it’s incorrect. (And, again, hateful.)

Monthly Usage

This month, we had 36 outgoing completed calls made from our Futel phone, as well as 19 calls made from our Connections phone at the Dunlap Seattle Community Fridge (SCF) site, and 1 call made from our Connections phone at the Estelita’s Library SCF site.

310 pairs of thermal socks
182 warm hats
188 pairs of warm gloves
297 pairs of handwarmers
1340 Band-Aids
60 CoBan rolls
34 ABD gauze pads, and 53 non-adherent pads
767 nitrile gloves
152 packets of Vaseline
73 sunscreen packets
218 masks (N95 and KF94)
182 doses of ibuprofen
129 pairs of earplugs
112 ponchos
93 pencils
121 body wash/shampoo/shaving gel packets
204 toothbrushes
140 tubes of toothpaste
48 tampons
60 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
547 packets of hand sanitizer
112 paper bags
238 razors
353 condoms, 23 internal (“female”) condoms, and 220 lubricant packets
37 boxes (74 doses) of naloxone nasal spray, and 16 kits (32 doses) of injectable naloxone

Our COGGA for this month is $1756.93, not including naloxone, condoms, or lubricants (all of which are provided by outside groups at no cost to us).

We received donations this month from Harley LaRoux, Rebecca Francis, Andrew Smart, and Angharad Caceres. Thank you all so much!

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.

Restock: November 2025

2025-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

Welcome to the Restock!

Updates and Changes

We had one subtraction from what we’re distributing this month: after giving out 700 bars, we’re no longer distributing bar soap for the time being. Our working theory (on which we’re open to feedback!) is that most visitors aren’t likely to be able to transport a partially-used bar of soap around until it’s used up (over a few days to a week), so our new liquid soap, which comes in single-serving packets, is more likely to be helpful. The liquid soap is also designed to be used as shampoo and as a shaving gel, so it’s more flexible as well. As with everything, we’ll see how it goes.

One other update: we’ve finally checked off a to-do list item we’ve put off for 11 months and published a zine on LFFC with our friends at Fenestrate Press. The zine is both a pitch for building new LFFC-like things and a collection of notes on how to build, maintain, and stock one, along with the costs for doing so, distributors we use, and other hopefully-useful information. Fenestrate has made it available in HTML, PDF (viewing), and PDF (printable booklet) formats; feel free to share with all and sundry. We’ll update it when we receive feedback or otherwise periodically.

Monthly Usage

This month, we had 16 outgoing completed calls made from our Futel phone, as well as 29 calls made from our Connections phone at the Dunlap Seattle Community Fridge (SCF) site, and 33 calls made from our Connections phone at the Estelita’s Library SCF site.

286 pairs of thermal socks
173 warm hats
180 pairs of warm gloves
292 pairs of handwarmers
1237 Band-Aids
73 CoBan rolls
56 ABD gauze pads, and 84 non-adherent pads
648 nitrile gloves
162 packets of Vaseline
58 sunscreen packets
199 masks (N95 and KF94)
182 doses of ibuprofen
81 pairs of earplugs
128 ponchos
105 pencils
57 bars of soap, and 136 soap/shampoo/shaving gel packets
262 toothbrushes
179 tubes of toothpaste
113 tampons
86 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
408 packets of hand sanitizer
152 paper bags
213 razors
359 condoms, 21 internal (“female”) condoms, and 275 lubricant packets
27 boxes (54 doses) of naloxone nasal spray, and 21 kits (42 doses) of injectable naloxone

Our COGGA for this month is $1780.19, not including naloxone, condoms, or lubricants (all of which are provided by outside groups at no cost to us).

We received donations this month from Harley LaRoux, Rebecca Francis, Andrew Smart, Bill O’Connor, Bev Ross, and Angharad Caceres. Thank you all so much!

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.

Restock: October 2025

2025-10-31T00:00:00+00:00

Welcome to the Restock!

Updates and Changes

I don’t think there’s any need to belabor our feelings on the moral bankruptcy of the fascist monsters who have decided to starve people beginning tomorrow rather than help people to afford healthcare, other than to say that for people who throw around the term “anti-Christian bias” as though it’s something that exists in the real world, they don’t seem much to have paid attention to the whole “feed the hungry” bit of Christianity. Funny; as I recall from CCD, Jesus was fairly clear on that point. (If you’re into Jesus, we recommend the sermons of Rev. Brooks Cato, who is preaching up a storm in upstate New York and, like us, has some ill-tempered feelings about things.)

We had two sets of additions to what we’re distributing this month. First, as the temperature dropped, we added back in our modest winter supplies: warm hats and gloves, plus chemical handwarmers, the latter from a new vendor that seems pretty decent so far. Then, in response to a request from a visitor, we’ve added modest shaving supplies—safety razors and a combined shave gel / body wash / shampoo. We’re nearly out of bar soap, and intend to distribute just that new body wash going forward, as it’s probably more helpful for our visitors (who may not be able to transport a bar of soap around for sufficient time to use it up fully). That said, as always, if we receive feedback to the contrary we’ll take it into account!

In physical changes to LFFC, as we alluded to last month, we’ve added a presence sensor and more internal lighting; the upshot is that LFFC is dimmer (but pretty!) when people aren’t at it, and much brighter (but still pretty!) when people are at it. The increased lighting when people are present definitely seems to help people feel comfortable and welcomed, and the sensor means that it isn’t casting too much light when people aren’t there (although the lights are all pointed parallel to the street, so they don’t cause glare for homes or cars).

Monthly Usage

This month, we had 10 outgoing completed calls made from our Futel phone, as well as 46 calls made from our Connections phone at the Dunlap Seattle Community Fridge (SCF) site, and 5 calls made from our newest Connections phone at the new Estelita’s Library SCF site, which came online early this month.

This month, we distributed:

273 pairs of thermal socks
100 warm hats (not a full month of distribution)
104 pairs of warm gloves (not a full month of distribution)
160 pairs of handwarmers (not a full month of distribution)
780 Band-Aids
59 CoBan rolls
35 ABD gauze pads, and 42 non-adherent pads
501 nitrile gloves
120 packets of Vaseline
31 sunscreen packets
142 masks (N95 and KF94)
146 doses of ibuprofen
67 pairs of earplugs
78 ponchos
87 pencils
50 bars of soap, and 26 soap/shampoo/shaving gel packets (not a full month of distribution)
226 toothbrushes
125 tubes of toothpaste
45 tampons
44 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
236 packets of hand sanitizer
129 paper bags
30 razors (not a full month of distribution)
388 condoms, 17 internal (“female”) condoms, and 204 lubricant packets
30 boxes (60 doses) of naloxone nasal spray, and 18 kits (36 doses) of injectable naloxone

Our COGGA for this month is $1200.69, not including naloxone, condoms, or lubricants (all of which are provided by outside groups at no cost to us).

We received an exceptional number of donations this month–from Harley LaRoux, Rebecca Francis, Andrew Smart, Bill O’Connor, Pauline Bariola, Laurie Feinswog, Carole Lindner, George Perantatos, Tisha Loranger, Tamara Meyer, Angharad Caceres, Denise Murdock, and Kristen Mukai, as well as four from anonymous donors (one in person and three online). Thank you all so much!

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.

Restock: September 2025

2025-10-03T00:00:00+00:00

Welcome to the Restock!

Updates and Changes

Compared to last month’s complete rebuild, this month’s changes are much milder. Last month, we added LED lighting to the inside of LFFC, but had done a fairly quick job of it to move onto other projects. A visitor, clearly incensed by our lack of professionalism, decided to rid us of the hack lighting job to incentivize better work! Accordingly, we took the hint and have done a much more professional job this time around. We’re pretty pleased with the result! This quick video shows the lighting at about 90% completed, in “night” mode; since then, we added one more long loop of lights in the upper half of LFFC, to better light the art section and generally make everything easier to see. (No photos yet, but we’ll update the ones on the about page soon!) The lighting outside the cabinets serves to draw people in, and the lighting inside the cabinets makes it so that people can see what we have available at night (which, in Seattle in winter, lasts from approximately 4:30pm to 9am). In October, we intend to add a presence sensor so that rather than merely having “day” (pretty lights) and “night” (all-white lights inside to better light the interior for guests) modes, we can have pretty lights all the time, switching to white interior lighting when someone comes by.

We also built a sandwich board (one of those A-frame sidewalk signs) and have started putting up various messages, with more to come. It’s fun to work on the art parts of LFFC!

For those curious, donations never go to anything other than the actual goods we distribute; the art, electronics, and other weird things just make us happy and enhances neighbor appeal.

We added three new items to what we stock for visitors this month. At the request of a visitor, we started stocking single-serving hand sanitizer packets, which are small enough to take several even with limited cargo space, and cost-effective for us to distribute. At the suggestion of Katy (the source of many of our best ideas), we also added small paper sacks to enable people to carry the myriad small things they might grab from LFFC (a few condoms, a toothbrush and toothpaste, some hand sanitizer, some wound care products, and soon either you need a bag or a juggling hobby!). Finally, at the suggestion of our friends at King County Public Health, we’ve added injectable naloxone in addition to the nasal spray. All three items had immediate strong uptake, which is a sign that they’re meeting a need.

The temperature is dropping rapidly, and soon we’ll add winter supplies (hats, warm gloves, and handwarmers) back into the mix. We’re experimenting with a new handwarmer vendor this year, who have a direct-to-consumer model and promise substantially higher quality than our previous handwarmers (the big name brand ones) at lower cost. If that’s true, we’ll sing their praises!

Monthly Usage

This month, we had thirty-four outgoing completed calls made from our Futel phone, as well as 69 calls made from our first Connections node install–at the Dunlap Seattle Community Fridge site, just a mile south of LFFC. (Another Connections node will come fully online in the next week!)

This month, we distributed:

258 pairs of thermal socks
1120 Band-Aids
85 CoBan rolls
40 ABD gauze pads, and 52 non-adherent pads
572 nitrile gloves
160 packets of Vaseline
83 sunscreen packets
232 masks (N95 and KF94)
183 doses of ibuprofen
85 pairs of earplugs
44 ponchos
153 pencils
78 bars of soap
199 toothbrushes
146 tubes of toothpaste
64 tampons
35 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
142 packets of hand sanitizer
109 paper bags
518 condoms, 29 internal (“female”) condoms, and 237 lubricant packets
53 boxes (106 doses) of naloxone nasal spray, and 17 kits (34 doses) of injectable naloxone

Our COGGA for this month is $845.21, not including naloxone, condoms, or lubricants (all of which are provided by outside groups at no cost to us).

We received donations this month from Harley LaRoux, Rebecca Francis, Andrew Smart, Aidan Sjothun, and Father Ron Mrozinski, as well as one from an anonymous donor. Thank you all so much!

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.

Restock: August 2025

2025-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

Welcome to the Restock!

One Year

LFFC went up in pieces during July and August, 2024, but was first stocked over Labor Day weekend; I count September 1st as its first “real” day, as getting everything stocked took a bit of time. So we’ve been here for a year! It’s not quite correct to say “I never imagined we’d make it a year” (that’s what the concrete pours were for), but it’s certainly true that while our mission has stayed focused—we’re here to help the people in this neighborhood with nonfood needs, art, and zines—our area of effect has been able to broaden slightly.

We’ve gained friends from Seattle Mask Bloc, Seattle Community Fridge, Seattle Community Network, Futel, and the lovely folks at WA OEND and King County Public Health. We’ve met people of all ages, backgrounds, stories, and levels of need who’ve stopped by LFFC for supplies, art (including sharing their own art!), zines, or even just to see what on earth it was. We became a major condom distributor to area teenagers after school ended for the summer. Remarkably, we’ve not had a single negative comment about LFFC from neighbors in an entire year, and at this point we’re a neighborhood institution. :-)

Thanks so much to everyone who has stopped by, donated, asked questions, offered advice, or come to get things. We couldn’t have asked for a better neighborhood to install a thing in.

Updates and Changes

Early this month, aided by some friends with doctorates, strong backs, and a comedic sense of three-dimensional geometry, we hoisted the new roof onto LFFC’s pillars. (The doctorates were optional for this purpose, but they came with the friends.) It’s substantially larger, which will keep rain off people attempting to visit LFFC (the old one had a slight habit of keeping rain off LFFC itself, only to drop it down the backs of visitors). Later in the month, we removed the old cabinets and installed a single new one, custom-built for the space. Rather than splitting up different categories of stuff, the new cabinet lets us use the total available volume of LFFC more efficiently and will be more rain- and mold-resistant. We’ve also added real gutters and better lighting and cord management

The old cabinets came from Ballard Reuse; they were guitar display cases originally used by Dusty Strings. Sadly, MDF and veneers didn’t fare well against a Seattle winter. The new cabinet is also from Ballard Reuse in a sense; the boards were old cedar barn wood, and the doors were reclaimed leaded glass windows from one of the Victorian mansions around Seattle. (Yes, we did the lead remediation on the also-lead paint; everything is safely sealed behind latex now.) Some glue, some screws, new shelves, and a paint color chosen by a three-year-old later (always let kids choose paint colors for your house; the colors are more fun), and the result’s new photo is on our About page!

The other major change has been electronic. In May, at the request of a visitor, we started looking into how to provide free WiFi at LFFC. This month, we added WiFi and moved the phone electronics (the things that provide a phone line to the phone) to a new home. This created the first instance of what we’re calling a Connections node, in partnership with both Futel (phone service) and Seattle Community Network (the Internet service backing the WiFi). We’re building many more Connections nodes, and installed the second one at a Seattle Community Fridge location in south Seattle; we hope to expand to the other seven SCF locations soon!

Monthly Usage

This month, we had thirteen outgoing completed calls made from the Futel phone.

This month, we distributed:

206 pairs of thermal socks
1060 Band-Aids
58 CoBan rolls
31 ABD gauze pads, and 44 non-adherent pads
429 nitrile gloves
82 packets of Vaseline
69 sunscreen packets
160 masks (N95 and KF94)
104 doses of ibuprofen
58 pairs of earplugs
33 ponchos
42 pencils
49 bars of soap
166 toothbrushes
104 tubes of toothpaste
141 tampons
124 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
107 condoms, 12 female condoms, and 97 lubricant packets
36 boxes (72 doses) of naloxone

Our COGGA for this month is $518.53, not including naloxone, condoms, or lubricants (all of which are provided by outside groups at no cost to us).

We received donations this month from Harley LaRoux and Andrew Smart, as well as one from an anonymous donor.

Donations this month came from Tammy Miller, Harley LaRoux, Andrew Smart, and multiple anonymous donors. Thank you all so much!

Annual Totals

Here’s what we’ve distributed in one year:

2,306 pairs of socks
9,900 Band-Aids
456 CoBan rolls
426 ABD gauze pads, and 242 non-adherent pads (though we started distributing the latter only a few months ago)
4,396 nitrile gloves
413 packets of Vaseline (another add only a few months ago)
1,819 masks (N95 and KF94)
1,098 doses of ibuprofen
542 pairs of earplugs
725 ponchos
532 pencils
515 bars of soap
1,176 toothbrushes
791 tubes of toothpaste
1,115 tampons
728 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
1,932 condoms, 39 female condoms, and 1,472 lubricant packets
318 boxes (636 doses) of naloxone
48 tubes and 163 packets of sunscreen (seasonal)
794 pairs of warm gloves (seasonal)
669 warm hats (seasonal)
1,440 handwarmers (seasonal)

The total COGGA is $9,518.42. We’ve had two hundred and fifty total connected outbound calls on our Futel phone this past year!

Annual Total Donations

We have been touched that people feel so strongly about LFFC that they want to donate money to help support it. Over the last twelve months, we’ve received a total of $2,428.69 in donations from:

Harley LaRoux
Rick Morck
Bev Ross
Tammy Miller
Andrew Smart

And quite a few donors who have chosen not to be acknowledged publicly. Thank you all so much!

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.

Restock: July 2025

2025-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

Welcome to the Restock!

Updates and Changes

We’ve spent a bunch of time in the past month preparing for a whole new LFFC roof and cabinet. Now, this might strike you as controversial, but it rains a lot in Seattle–and while we thought we had that handled with the roof, a year’s water infiltration into the cabinet materials (which turned out to be MDF, whoops) proved us wrong. We’ve got new plans, a new (larger) roof, and a new (more waterproof) cabinet; the whole thing will fit in the same footprint, but have slightly more capacity and be quite a lot more waterproof. New photos coming soon!

Monthly Usage

This month, we had fourteen outgoing completed calls made from the Futel phone.

This month, we distributed:

198 pairs of thermal socks
1080 Band-Aids
55 CoBan rolls
35 ABD gauze pads, and 46 non-adherent pads
375 nitrile gloves
76 packets of Vaseline
223 masks (N95 and KF94)
109 doses of ibuprofen
63 pairs of earplugs
54 ponchos
80 pencils
67 bars of soap
125 toothbrushes
81 tubes of toothpaste
16 tampons
42 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
221 condoms, 6 female condoms, and 182 lubricant packets
34 boxes (68 doses) of naloxone

Our COGGA for this month is $702.63, not including naloxone, condoms, or lubricants (all of which are provided by outside groups at no cost to us).

We received donations this month from Harley LaRoux and Andrew Smart, as well as one from an anonymous donor.

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.

Restock: June 2025

2025-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

Welcome to the Restock!

Updates and Changes

The only major change this month: we’ve expanded our zine selection again! We now include several excellent zines from the Reproductive Health Access Project and Fenestrate Press in addition to our existing libraries.

Monthly Usage

This month, we had twelve outgoing completed calls made from the Futel phone.

This month, we distributed:

192 pairs of thermal socks
1020 Band-Aids
45 CoBan rolls
34 ABD gauze pads, and 49 non-adherent pads
450 nitrile gloves
67 packets of Vaseline
206 masks (N95 and KF94)
75 doses of ibuprofen
62 pairs of earplugs
58 ponchos
37 pencils
28 bars of soap
134 toothbrushes
71 tubes of toothpaste
119 tampons
149 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
253 condoms, 17 female condoms, and 141 lubricant packets
27 boxes (54 doses) of naloxone

Our COGGA for this month is $635.34, not including naloxone, condoms, or lubricants (all of which are provided by outside groups at no cost to us).

We received donations this month from Harley LaRoux, as well as one from an anonymous donor. We also have had significant help restocking from a friend of LFFC who prefers to “keep a low profile” but has been so helpful filling in. 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.

Restock: May 2025

2025-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

Welcome to the Restock!

Updates and Changes

It has gotten warm in Seattle at last! In early May, we therefore stopped handing out hats, warm gloves, and handwarmers for the summer. They’ll return when it gets cold again. (Since rain is possible year-round, the ponchos will stay!)

We also were able to get lube restocked, as well as adding FC2 female condoms to our existing male condom supplies, thanks to the wonderful people at King County Public Health. I’m so delighted they’re still able to work with us.

The only other change of any substance is that we changed the Futel phone to give a dial tone immediately (rather than “press 1 to dial”). While I love the choose-your-own-adventure of the art directory in the phone, we had a few people who were confused by it, so switching to a straight dial tone will help them. Worry not, however; your direct connection to all things Telephone Art is still there by hitting #, and as always, Futel operators are sometimes standing by at 0.

Monthly Usage

This month, we had seventy-six outgoing completed calls made from the Futel phone. It has been lovely to know so many people find it helpful; on a few occasions, we’ve seen it in use by people who are calling numbers from the resource brochures we distribute, which is a nice feeling as well.

This month, we distributed:

209 pairs of thermal socks
29 pairs of thermal gloves (in the first few days of May, before discontinuing for the summer)
17 warm hats (in the first few days of May, before discontinuing for the summer)
1040 Band-Aids
34 CoBan rolls
48 ABD gauze pads, and 59 non-adherent pads
478 nitrile gloves
94 packets of Vaseline
190 masks (N95 and KF94)
94 doses of ibuprofen
75 pairs of earplugs
22 pairs of handwarmers (in the first few days of May, before discontinuing for the summer)
55 ponchos
55 pencils
55 bars of soap (yes, all three of those really were 55, random numbers are random)
123 toothbrushes
90 tubes of toothpaste
149 tampons
75 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
170 condoms, 4 female condoms, and 92 lubricant packets
29 boxes (58 doses) of naloxone

Our COGGA for this month is $664.51, not including naloxone, condoms, or lubricants (all of which are provided by outside groups at no cost to us).

We received donations this month from Harley LaRoux, and Andrew Smart, as well as one from an anonymous donor. 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.

Restock: April 2025

2025-05-02T14:00:00-08:00

Welcome to the Restock!

Updates and Changes

First, art and an apology! In March, two different people brought lovely art to distribute at LFFC, and I didn’t get it placed out during March and even worse forgot to thank them here. First, Xara brought 100 bright and beautiful paper cranes, which I have been (slowly) adding to LFFC to give splashes of color (my intention is to create a whole stream of them, but that’s in progress); many have already flown onto new homes! She shares:

hellooo! my name is xara, i am 19 years old, and am passionate about music (singing especially), poetry, and talking pleasantly with strangers. i began to fold paper cranes after learning from my older sister who folded them avidly. i used to like to leave them places in hopes that they would brighten someone’s day, and my wish for the cranes now is similar: that they bring happiness to whoever encounters them!

Second, Nancy has been making both beautiful hand-knitted hats and, more recently, tiny fabric chicks in fleece eggs. All have already spread to new places where I’m sure they’re bringing joy and delight. Thank you so much to both Xara and Nancy for sharing your art with LFFC!

In April, we haven’t changed what we’ve been handing out at all, and have instead spent our logistics time preparing for the intentional destruction of the US economy through pointless tariffs. The backstock on primary goods (socks, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and the like) is now sufficient to support several months without imports; after that, to be honest, I don’t know what will happen. The socks, hats, and gloves we distribute are made in Pakistan; the masks and earplugs are made in China; and everything else is, like nearly everything sold in the US, either imported as a finished product, or assembled in the US of a mix of domestic and imported products. In addition to the naloxone itself being imported from Israel, funding for drug overdose prevention has (of course) been destroyed at the federal level; the state is unlikely to be able to distribute naloxone in a few more months, and then people will start dying horribly and preventably.

For our part, we will continue to provide anything we can, for as long as we are able.

Monthly Usage

This month, we had six outgoing completed calls made from the Futel phone.

This month, we distributed:

222 pairs of thermal socks
136 pairs of thermal gloves
130 warm hats
960 Band-Aids
46 CoBan rolls
33 ABD gauze pads, and 44 non-adherent pads
363 nitrile gloves
81 packets of Vaseline
157 masks (N95 and KF94)
118 doses of ibuprofen
53 pairs of earplugs
179 pairs of handwarmers
90 ponchos
49 pencils
46 bars of soap
147 toothbrushes
94 tubes of toothpaste
90 tampons
46 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
175 condoms, and 169 lubricant packets
27 boxes (54 doses) of naloxone

Our COGGA for this month is $1127.88, not including naloxone, condoms, or lubricants (all of which are provided by outside groups at no cost to us).

We received donations this month from Harley LaRoux, as well as one from an anonymous donor. 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.

Restock: March 2025

2025-03-31T17:00:00-08:00

Welcome to the Restock!

Updates and Changes

New wound care items! A neighbor (and nurse) suggested that we add Vaseline packets to help keep wounds moist and protected; a couple of days later, two street medics came by and suggested that we add non-adherent gauze (that won’t stick to wounds) to help prevent new injury when changing bandages. (The ABD pads still help keep wounds from leaking through, since they have a waterproof back, but one can use the non-adherent bandages underneath the ABD pads.) Both are now in LFFC, with our thanks to both suggestors.

Zines have been extremely popular over the last month. We haven’t keep good numbers on how many we’re distributing, but they keep needing reprints, which suggests they’re getting read.

Monthly Usage

This month, we had 38 outgoing completed calls made from the Futel phone! That’s a new record, and more than one per day on average. (Our previous most was 25 in one month.) We’re delighted that people are finding it so helpful; it’s lovely to come outside and find people using the phone.

This month, we distributed:

226 pairs of thermal socks
168 pairs of thermal gloves
161 warm hats
1180 Band-Aids
47 CoBan rolls
57 ABD gauze pads
580 nitrile gloves
198 masks (N95 and KF94)
115 doses of ibuprofen
39 pairs of earplugs
209 pairs of handwarmers
109 ponchos
92 pencils
45 bars of soap
111 toothbrushes
683 tubes of toothpaste
30 tampons
52 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
272 condoms, and 213 lubricant packets
37 boxes (74 doses) of naloxone

Our COGGA for this month is $1266.17, not including naloxone, condoms, or lubricants (all of which are provided by outside groups at no cost to us).

We received donations this month from Harley LaRoux, as well as several from anonymous donors. 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.

Restock: February 2025

2025-02-28T17:00:00-08:00

Welcome to the Restock!

Updates and Changes

Zines! I’ve finally installed a much more substantial zine rack and started stocking it with useful tomes, including Spencer Sunshine’s 40 Ways to Fight Fascists and some useful things from Crimethinc, along with (for four months now) the updated-quarterly publications on shelter, food resources, and other key information from Crisis Connections. The latter aren’t taken every day, but I do need to reprint them from time to time, so I hope that people are finding them valuable.

If you have suggestions for zines (either that are available for bulk very-low-cost purchase, or (preferably) that I can print myself), please send them in! Contact information is at the bottom of the post. People have occasionally left zines at LFFC for sharing, which I adore. (I know Sabotage! Noise! often makes its way to LFFC, for instance.) Hopefully the new, larger and more organized, zine rack will encourage such behavior.

Art will also be restarting in March, with a new postcard printing, and an exciting special exhibition from a new-to-LFFC artist that I’m delighted about. More news and perhaps some photos in next month’s Restock.

This month we bid farewell to our inaugural Extremely Giant Pile of Socks, having now distributed all 720 pairs. Worry not, however: we already have 840 more pairs on hand.

Monthly Usage

This month, we had 8 outgoing completed calls made from the Futel phone!

This month, we distributed:

196 pairs of thermal socks
125 pairs of thermal gloves
121 warm hats
840 Band-Aids
33 CoBan rolls
39 gauze pads
348 nitrile gloves
189 masks (N95 and KF94)
95 doses of ibuprofen
21 pairs of earplugs
223 pairs of handwarmers
51 ponchos
23 pencils
50 bars of soap
91 toothbrushes
68 tubes of toothpaste
102 tampons
38 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
146 condoms, and 100 lubricant packets
27 boxes (54 doses) of naloxone

Our COGGA for this month is $1082.07, not including naloxone, condoms, or lubricants (all of which are provided by outside groups at no cost to us).

We received donations this month from Harley LaRoux, an anonymous donor, and one exceptionally generous donation from Richard Morck. 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.

Restock: January 2025

2025-01-31T17:00:00-08:00

Welcome to the Restock!

Updates and Changes

Well, it has been a Month, nationally as well as for LFFC. I won’t belabor the national issues, other than to point out that the tariffs will be pretty devastating to our COGGA for things—most of the textiles we distribute, for instance, come from Pakistan. It is of course very easy to find reasons to quit this work; I have thus far been successful in finding reasons to continue, as well. For instance, this month someone told me about the first opioid overdose reversal they made using naloxone from LFFC, which was incredible. (And which owes infinitely more to their skill in CPR than to us, of course.)

We managed to blow through the entire (warm) glove and hat repository this month; a larger restock has been ordered, and will arrive next week or so. Who knew logistics was a difficult discipline?

We’ve also now distributed all of the lead tests provided by the UW LilLabs project. We’ve been proud to be part of the launch class of LilLabs; it has been wonderful to work with UW and to see all the other people around the world trying to put scientific information and tooling in the hands of people who need it. A new cohort will launch soon; keep an eye on their Join page to stay informed!

It has also become clear that despite my waterproofing attempts, water has infiltrated the walls of the cabinets; while they have pretty veneers, they’re just particleboard underneath. So they’re doomed. This summer I’ll get the chance to build the cabinets again, this time from scratch and with more attention given to water protection! (Don’t worry, the posts are cedar in concrete, and the roof has shingles, so all of that will abide without issue; it’s just the cabinets.)

Monthly Usage

This month, we had 25 outgoing completed calls made from the Futel phone! (This data is kindly provided by Futel itself; I set up a system to collect a count of completed calls, but didn’t complete the visualization layer. I’m delighted that they have the data for all their phones!)

This month, we distributed:

237 pairs of thermal socks
165 pairs of thermal gloves
171 warm hats
960 Band-Aids
45 CoBan rolls
52 gauze pads
462 nitrile gloves
154 masks (N95 and KF94)
110 doses of ibuprofen
54 pairs of earplugs
279 pairs of handwarmers
96 ponchos
53 pencils
74 bars of soap
118 toothbrushes
93 tubes of toothpaste
156 tampons
75 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
128 condoms, and 144 lubricant packets
55 lead tests (10 object, 45 soil)
26 boxes (52 doses) of naloxone–and one confirmed overdose reversal from naloxone picked up at LFFC, which was wonderful to hear about.

Our COGGA for this month is $1170.98, not including naloxone, condoms, lubricants, or lead tests (all of which are provided by outside groups at no cost to us).

We received two donations this month from Harley LaRoux and Andrew Smart. 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.

Restock: December 2024

2024-12-31T18:00:00-08:00

Welcome to the Restock!

Updates and Changes

Not so many changes this month. We got hats and gloves back into the cabinets, and we continued to see increased usage, even with a brief unavoidable pause in restocking for much of a week. It’s clear there is a huge amount of unmet need—and as Bruce Harrell and Ann Davison continue to weaponize the police against the houseless, I have no doubt that needs will increase going forward.

Monthly Usage

This month, we distributed:

168 pairs of thermal socks
75 pairs of thermal gloves
69 warm hats
820 Band-Aids
61 CoBan rolls
34 gauze pads
346 nitrile gloves
182 masks (N95 and KF94)
16 tubes of sunscreen (still useful in the winter!)
123 doses of ibuprofen
45 pairs of earplugs
214 pairs of handwarmers
98 ponchos
45 pencils
38 bars of soap
97 toothbrushes
64 tubes of toothpaste
120 tampons
29 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
121 condoms, and 161 lubricant packets
24 soil lead tests, and three ten-packs of object lead tests
30 boxes (60 doses) of naloxone

Our COGGA for this month is $949.23, not including naloxone, condoms, lubricants, or lead tests (all of which are provided by outside groups at no cost to us).

We received two donations this month from Harley LaRoux and Erin Condit-Bergren. Thank you so much for your generosity!

2024 Summary

We started on Labor Day Weekend 2024, so essentially September 1. In four continuous months of operation, we’ve given away in total:

620 pairs of socks
171 pairs of warm gloves, and 69 hats
460 condoms, and 334 packets of lubricant
75 boxes of naloxone (150 doses)
1,760 Band-Aids
114 CoBan rolls
97 gauze pads
911 nitrile gloves
342 masks
48 tubes of sunscreen
278 doses of ibuprofen
493 pairs of handwarmers
169 ponchos
101 pencils
101 bars of soap
161 toothbrushes, and 107 tubes of toothpaste
439 period products of various sorts

The COGGA in this period has been $2,345.82.

Not bad for a cabinet on a driveway.

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.

Restock: November 2024

2024-12-01T18:00:00-08:00

Welcome to the Restock!

Updates and Changes

Art: we changed out the zine holders at the bottom of the right-hand cabinet for 48 tiny drawers to hold stickers and such. We’ll continue to do zines (and expand what we’re offering), but the cabinet needs a new layout, and we want to do more experimental stuff. It’s in progress. We’re also hoping to add the Short Story Printer this month! As always, want to add art to our rotating gallery? Check out our Call for Art (soon to be broadened to a call for stickers, small arts, and other fun things).

New items: we added toothbrushes, toothpaste, and warm gloves to the available items. Warm gloves were an experiment that turned out to be in more demand than we anticipated—we added them to the cabinet on November 7, and by November 30, all 96 pairs we had bought were gone. More are being shipped this week. Toothbrushes and toothpaste have also seen great uptake.

As it gets colder, it’s no shock that warmer socks are in high demand. We switched to a new sock vendor early in the month, with the effect being that our cost per pair of socks has dropped dramatically and the new socks are significantly warmer; an excellent win for everyone.

Overall usage: we’re hitting the point where the needs of the community exceed what one kiosk can provide. (This was always self-evident as a total thing, but more specifically we’re hitting the limits of what this LFFC location can distribute with its current stocking cadence and space available, both in the cabinet and for backstock.) To that end, we’ll be preparing what we’re (jokingly) calling a franchise pitch: a document sharing how we set up a LFFC, how we decided to stock it, and what all the costs are in doing so. The hope is that we can provide one example of what it actually takes to run such a thing, and thus increase the number of people who feel able to do something like this.

Monthly Usage

This month, we distributed:

228 pairs of thermal socks
96 pairs of thermal gloves
580 Band-Aids
31 CoBan rolls
34 gauze pads
303 nitrile gloves
78 masks (N95 and KF94)
12 tubes of sunscreen (still useful in the winter!)
89 doses of ibuprofen
35 pairs of earplugs
200 pairs of handwarmers
37 ponchos
26 pencils
36 bars of soap
64 toothbrushes
43 tubes of toothpaste
63 tampons
45 menstrual pads (across all sizes)
194 condoms, and 109 lubricant packets
11 soil lead tests, and two ten-packs of object lead tests
28 boxes (56 doses) of naloxone

Our COGGA for this month is $803.46, not including naloxone, condoms, lubricants, or lead tests (all of which are provided by outside groups at no cost to us).

We received two donations this month from Harley LaRoux and Bill O’Connor. 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.

Restock: October 2024

2024-10-31T19:00:00-07:00

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.

Restock: September 2024

2024-09-30T22:00:00-07:00

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.

New Site

2024-09-09T21:25:28-07:00

We have updated our site to be less “deeply terrible draft” and more “very-low-key production.” Progress!

More useful content will come soon, such as how much restocking we’re doing.