Little Free Food Pantries to appear across Aurora

Aurora residents who are in need of food but short on money will soon have a new way to get what they need to feed their families. According to unofficial minutes from the Aurora City Council meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 26, the council voted unanimously to allow three Little Free Food Pantries to be installed on city property following a request from Aurora resident Kala Bailey.
While making her request to the council, Bailey stated several businesses were on board to support the pantries, and that Architectural Systems, Inc., offered to make the pantries out of aluminum.
 She also said the pantries have been a big hit in Monett, and she would like to see the same thing happen in Aurora.
It wasn’t discussed at the meeting where the Little Free Food Pantries would be located. A media inquiry to Architectural Systems, Inc. wasn’t returned as of press time. Attempts to locate Bailey for comment were also unsuccessful as of press time.
Little Free Food Pantries are essentially storage containers left open to the public; members of the public may place non-perishable food items in the containers if they wish and help themselves to food in the containers if they need it. A similar project, Little Free Libraries, creates containers for people to leave books they are no longer using. Those who want a book left in a Little Free Library container may borrow or keep it for free.
In other business, the council voted to pass an ordinance which allows the Show Me Sales Tax holiday to apply to local sales tax in Aurora between April 19 and April 25, 2019. Also, City Manager Jon Holmes told the council that the Aurora School District reported that cars parked near the intersection of Hadley and Lincoln are blocking the right-hand turn lane. He suggested making this area a no-parking zone.