Local residents have teamed up to create a virtual community within a community centred around gifting and breaking consumer culture.
Buy Nothing Lakefield is a Facebook group that was created just this month by Lori Hayes and Melissa Taylor. The idea behind this page is for local members of the community to gift others their old or unused items such as clothing, shoes, house hold items, or plants. This page is similar to Facebook Marketplace where Facebook users can purchase items from others, however with Buy Nothing Lakefield everything is gifted away, never sold.
Hayes was the first to come up with the idea after moving to the area about a month ago. Hayes was formerly part of a similar group for the north end of Peterborough.
She quickly enlisted the help of Taylor to set up the page on social media.
The pair got most of the information on how to do so from the global initiative site at buynothingproject.org.
Hayes and Taylor both got behind the idea for not only the environmental reasons but also the community building aspects of the group as well.
The group encourages local residents within 10 minutes of the Village of Lakefield to gift old items to people who may need them rather than throwing their things away into a landfill. This reduces the amount of waste within the community while also forming connections with neighbours.
The rules to join the group are simple, live within a reasonable distance to Lakefield to ensure prompt drop-offs, understand the premise of gifting from abundance, not to receive compensation, and be honest and transparent about who you are and what you are looking for or to gift.
The two ladies hope that other communities close by will also start up similar groups for those in their areas to participate in the buy nothing initiative.
