Theresa Fulton coordinates 47 blue food-sharing cabinets across Tompkins County — open to anyone, stocked by the community, no questions asked. She joined Mutual Aid Tompkins during the pandemic without any background in community organizing (her PhD is in science education), and took over coordinating the cabinet network in 2022 when it had roughly thirty.

The cabinets started when someone saw a little free library and thought: what if that was food? Volunteers built them, placed them from downtown Ithaca to Dryden, Freeville, Spencer, Lansing, and the rural towns in between. When Spencer lost its only grocery store to a fire in September 2026, Mutual Aid Tompkins added a second cabinet there within weeks.

In this episode:

• What mutual aid actually means in practice — and how it differs from charity
• How 47 blue food cabinets serve a county of 100,000 people, stocked anonymously by the community
• Why toilet paper and diapers are harder to get than food (you can't buy them with SNAP or WIC)
• The accessible cabinet designed with disabled residents — 30 inches off the ground, reachable from a wheelchair
• How a Facebook group of nearly 10,000 members connects people who need help with people who can give it often on the same day
• How the whole operation runs on a few thousand dollars a year and a handful of committed volunteers
• What Theresa would tell a small group wanting to start something like this in their own community

Resources and Links

• Mutual Aid Tompkins: mutualaidtompkins.com
• Blue cabinet locations: mutualaidtompkins.com/food-sharing/locations
• Tompkins County Workers' Center (fiscal sponsor): tcworkerscenter.org
• Friendship Donation Network: friendshipdonations.org
• Community Foundation of Tompkins County: cftompkins.org
• Peter Kropotkin (mutual aid theory): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin
• Ithaca Local Economy Lab: ithacalocaleconomylab.com

The Practically Real Team:

• Jake Gribschaw - Technical Advisor linkedin.com/in/jgribschaw
• Stacey Cornelius - Associate Producer agencyofwords.com
• Sonia Simone - Content Strategist remarkable-communication.com
• Erin O'Shaughnessy - Creative Consultant psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/erin-o-shaughnessy-depoe-bay-or/373808
• Yen Ospina - Artist yenospina.com
• Carsie Blanton - Musician carsieblanton.com
• Photography by Forest Floor Creatives forestfloorcreatives.com

Produced by Practically Real Enterprises, LLC. Hosted by Dia