Gift-stuffed little free library offers holiday treats to Calgary neighbourhood

Calgarians are familiar with little free libraries — the small outdoor boxes that mimic real libraries and operate under the principle of "take a book, leave a book." But this Holiday season, a little library in the southeast is offering wrapped presents free for the taking.

"We wanted to do something small to lift people's spirits and to help out families that are really struggling to put presents under the tree this year," Evelyn Tanaka said Thursday on the Calgary Eyeopener.

Tanaka, who lives in the Elgin neighbourhood, has run a little free library on her front lawn for two years after receiving her library as a gift for her birthday from her sister-in-law. It's made from an old post office box.

She was inspired to offer more than just books in her library this year when she began thinking about the impact of the pandemic on children and about a fellow "librarian" who put wrapped books in their box last year.

"I think just it's been such a tough year for the kids," she said.

Each gift is marked with a tag that hints at what is inside so that people can choose a well-suited package.

Her library has a sign reminding people to sanitize their items.

Gifts for the library have been donated by community members, says Tanaka, who posted about her idea in the Little Free Library Calgary Facebook page. 

"The response was amazing. I had people come from across the community, walked over giant bags of wrapped gifts. I've been finding bags at my front door with gifting, you know, please wrap this up and put them in," said Tanaka.

She says she refills her box every couple of days and intends to donate any extra gifts to a community hamper project.

There are other "little free" spots in Calgary that offer more than just books.

One family in Bowness transformed their library into a pantry in April.

And the "Little Free Pantry" outside of a Bowness grocery shop has been open and well used for about five years, says Craig Sollitt, co-owner of the Bownesian Grocer.

The pantry is stocked by locally community groups, neighbours and by the grocery store itself.

"It's always empty," he said.

"As soon as [the] product is in there, I would say it's probably in there for 10 to 15 minutes."

Sollitt says they fill the pantry with food items like bread and dairy products regularly, but he's seen piles of Subway sandwiches, bathroom products and a pair of child's boots and mittens.

He says the pantry has always been popular, with this pandemic year being no exception.

"It's really quite impressive," he said. "It seems to be a perfect size. We can refill it up in the morning and the next time we go out it's all gone."

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener.