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Seafordite starts ‘Sharing Table’ to give back
If you have driven, biked or walked down Narragansett Avenue in Seaford in the past two weeks, chances are you’ve come across the Sharing Table — a small, tidy operation where people can either give, or take, whatever they need.
Mary Kate Tischler, of Seaford, is the creator of the goodwill exchange table, and serves as resident host. After seeing a similar idea in a magazine, Tischler bought the initial lot of canned goods, other non-perishable food items and toiletries. She put them on a standard six-foot by three-and-a-half-foot folding table outside her house on Narragansett on Nov. 22. Her goal wasn’t overly specific, she said. She just wanted to take advantage of the community’s proclivity to give by creating a place to do so without any pressure. The table remains outside, day and night, for community members to add to — or to take advantage of when needed.
“It seemed like a very effective and easy way to help people locally,” Tischler, 46, said on Monday. “That Sunday, I just woke up and my daughter and I had no plans. I said, ‘Let’s do this today.’ I didn’t know if it would actually work.”
The initial supply that Tischler purchased was swapped out quickly. Within days, residents began visiting the Sharing Table regularly. Tischler has not bought a single item to restock it since she set it up.
“I had a feeling that there would be a lot of donations, but wasn’t expecting as many people that would come to take things from the table,” she said. “But the table regenerates itself. I leave it on its own.”
At first, she carried it from just outside her garage to the curb every morning, and carried it back at sunset. Now she leaves it out. She covers it only when it rains or when it’s windy. She typically checks on it a few times a day through her front windows. “If I’m someone who needs something, I don’t want to have to talk to people about it,” she said, adding that she doesn’t want anyone to feel judged for taking an item they might really need.
Tischler also doesn’t fret over the prospect of theft. “If people steal, then I hope they need it,” she said. She has faith in the community to replenish it. “If anything, people are sneaking more things under the tarp to put on the table at night,” she said.
Her daughter Ruby, 6, helps her neaten the table in the morning, and has gone on deliveries with her mother. Mary Kate did not intend for that to be part of the endeavor, but when a Bay Shore resident reached out to her on Facebook with a delivery request due to an inability to travel, she packed up the order and drove east.
The hope, Tischler said, is that her daughter sees this as a valuable experiment. “My goal, as far as my daughter goes, is for her to realize how lucky she is and we are,” she said, adding that Ruby had already had some eye-opening experiences in just two weeks.
“We were outside, and a man was riding his bike down the street past our house,” Tischler said. “Instead of going by, the man stopped and said he was planning on coming here. The man had a reusable bag. He took out two small cans of tomato paste. He left them on the table and then started filling up the bag with toothpaste, soap, pasta, tomato sauce, things like that.”
The man then explained to her that he was so thankful to be able to shower with the bathing products and eat a meal that night. According to Tischler, he told her he was receiving food stamps that were worth just $16 a week. “He then pointed at a house nearby and said, ‘That’s where I live,’” she recounted. “He lives in this community.”
A Sharing Table Facebook group now keeps locals up to date. Tischler said she also began an Amazon wish list that will help her control what items are added and removed, so the table doesn’t have too much of one item and too little of another. The biggest need right now, she said, is for toiletries — shampoo, body wash, conditioner and facial tissues.
“I’m not just doing this for my daughter to learn lessons from it, but [to] have other kids from the community learn from it too,” she said, explaining that families have visited with young children.
Tischler said she expected to host the Sharing Table until Christmas, for now, although she wouldn’t rule out extending its time if there was enough demand. She also said that whenever an influx of items becomes overwhelming, she will ask the community to help her. She has already donated extra food to a local Boy Scout food drive.
For more information on the Sharing Table, go to https://www.facebook.com/TheSharingTableSeaford.
