If you’re a human person living pretty much anywhere in the world right now, chances are you made at least some semblance of an attempt to stock up your pantry over the course of the last few weeks. And as anyone who’s set foot in the grocery store recently can attest, IT IS PURE MAYHEM. And also kind of illogical in terms of what people are hoarding? Panic does weird things to people!

But since many of us are home-bound for a while, and we’ll be working with what we’ve got in the food department whether we like it or not, we figured it was high time to examine what’s in everybody’s pantries (sort of like our What’s In Your Fridge series), from the yum to the weird to the just plain WTF. To kick things off, we had our own staff to do a show ‘n tell of their stockpiled situations, so peruse that below!

And we would like to invite YOU to participate! Tag us in your pantry glamour shots on IG @brightestyoungthings #bythings and let’s get this pantry party started!

Svetlana Legetic, DC-based

Can you give us an overview of what’s happening?

For starters, we’re pretty lucky we actually have a pantry space that is relatively well stocked with things regular and weird, so the whole process so far has been just adding a few times the staples (normally we have 2 pasta sauces, now we have 4, 2 jars of peanut butter, now we have 4 etc) and it is 150% resulting in bending of some shelves and a freezer I currently can’t open but it is still relatively basic.

What’s the weirdest thing in there?

I sort of went pretty hard on things like pickles, olives, smoked salmon and Fever tree tonic, for some reason. I am Eastern European and a strong salty, almost pungent flavor does bring me a sense of calm. My husband now has a candy bar drawer, and a whole bunch of chocolate milk, and a packet of Nesquick in case chocolate milk disappears from the face of the earth. Basically, we complement each other and will never fight over who gets the final bite of anything. Speaking of final bites: The Milky Way in the candy drawer is a nod to “This Is The End” because: 

What are you most relieved is in there?

EGGS. Could not do this without eggs, and beans of all kinds.

Anything you wish you had but couldn’t get your hands on?

Nope.

How much of your supply have you already eaten?

We’re working on the fridge pretty strongly (always eat fresh things first), but the freezer and the pantry feel untouched to me.

How many people live with you that would be eating this?

2 of us. But we’re both over 6 feet (does that count?)

How much toilet paper do you have?

There’s 2 of us and there’s probably 30 rolls? Which feels like both a lot and not enough, depending on how things go.

Tom Hausman, DC-based

Can you give us an overview of what’s happening?

So we have a lot of pasta. We’ve got orzo, and penne, and elbow, and chickpea spaghetti, and far more boxes of Kraft mac’n’cheese than I’m willing to admit. Also a ton of baking supplies that have been hoarded for a lot longer than this crisis, and will maybe get used this month if I feel like baking.

What’s the weirdest thing in there?

An overabundance of baby-blue food decor (sprinkles, food coloring, buttercream, etc.)

What are you most relieved is in there?

I’m very glad to have gotten the last packet of orzo at the Giant I went to – it’s my absolute favorite variety of pasta!

Anything you wish you had but couldn’t get your hands on?

I have had the worst luck finding potatoes and, honestly, I could really use a bowl of homemade potato soup right now.

How much of your supply have you already eaten?

We’ve been slowly working through the dry microwaved noodle dishes – but just because those are so convenient. Probably safe to last another month or so on this alone.

How many people live with you that would be eating this?

There’s two of us (pet food lives in the freezer)

How much toilet paper do you have?

I think we have 11 rolls left – I’m not one to panic hoard (ignore all the pasta) but I could maybe use another few rolls of paper towels, rather than more TP

*Not pictured is the copious amounts of alcohol I purchased after twitter convinced me DC was going to close the liquor stores at 4 p.m. today (turned out to be false, but I didn’t want to get caught without!)

Marissa Rubenstein, DC-based

Can you give us an overview of what’s happening?

My pantry consists of like 90% snacks, coffee, and cough drops, and then nuun tablets and Apothekary supplements. So.. truly the essentials.  

What’s the weirdest thing in there?

I mean now that I look at this photo the fact that there are four bags of Pea Crisps seems a bit excessive. I also have three boxes of kind bars from always having them at events, but I’ll save those until I absolutely need to open them. I have a lot of trail mix for all the trails I am not hiking. 

What are you most relieved is in there?

The Immunity Nuun tablets! They’ve been impossible to find anywhere but I finally found some this morning, everyone was panic buying immunity boosting things. 

Anything you wish you had but couldn’t get your hands on?

I went grocery shopping yesterday morning and everything was actually really well stocked so I was able to grab my whole list. 

How much of your supply have you already eaten?

I went through my previous supply of snacks super quickly, so had to re-up after only about a week, so tried to overcompensate so I don’t have to go out for awhile. 

How much toilet paper do you have?

I love a good Costco run so I’m always set on toilet paper, I didn’t have to buy any these past few weeks. However, local non profit Casa Ruby is in major need of toilet paper.. so if you have extra.. they could use it. 

Nina Fomufod, DC-based

Can you give us an overview of what’s happening?

My “pantry” is a kitchen cabinet that almost always has soup, chickpeas, tuna and some form of pasta. Rona additions include pop tarts – so I can relive high school – and canned veggies. Spices live on the bottom left with old bay and everything-but-the-bagel seasoning being the fan-favorites. The fan being me.

 What’s the weirdest thing in there?

Soy sauce flavored ramen. I was seduced by the adorable egg cartoons, and very mistakenly thought this 6 pack was egg-flavored, which would still be kinda strange. Instead, I will now sustain myself with sodium-flavored, sodium bricks. I am the picture of health.

How much of your supply have you already eaten?

All the junky snax. I’ve already inhaled the entire bag of caramel cheddar popcorn and an obscene amount of gummy bears. It has been a week. 

How many people live with you that would be eating this?

Just me!

How much toilet paper do you have?

10 rolls – all of which were in my house pre-rona panic buying.

Megan Burns, Brooklyn-based

Can you give us an overview of what’s happening?

The bottom shelf is full of spices/seasonings and sauces/condiments/oils (the only thing I really deem worthy of hoarding in a time of crisis), as well as an emergency stash of Beyond Good chocolate bars I was given after I went to their office last week. (Dark chocolate for dark times. Also, weirdly an excellent source of iron?!) The other two shelves have the more “substantial” stuff, so pasta, rice, beans, canned fish, several kinds of seaweed (nori, dulse…I’m a total seaweed freak), oats, canned pumpkin (behind the oats), a couple of boxes of mac ‘n cheese, PB and coffee. (Mainly I tried to get filling, nutritionally dense stuff that could easily be mixed and matched.)

What’s the weirdest thing in there?

Most of this is representative of what I already eat on a weekly basis, canned fish and Heinz beans included, so some of it (including one of the oats containers) is stuff I already had. I’d say the weirdest thing I “panic-bought” is canned pumpkin, which I feel like is usually a pantry reject by most people’s standards; my logic was that I didn’t want to deprive anybody of the more in-demand stuff (fortunately, I tend to go semi-niche in the first place), and since frozen vegetables were a hot commodity, I decided to game the system w/ a couple of cans of pumpkin instead – it’s versatile (put it in oats! soups! sauces!), and half a cup knocks out 100% of your recommended vitamin A intake for the day.

What are you most relieved is in there?

I’m most relieved that I have sambal oelek reserves, because I put that shit on EVERYTHING. (Spicy endorphins, y’know?)

Anything you wish you had but couldn’t get your hands on?

I’m gonna echo Tom re: spuds! I can easily go through a 5lb bag of potatoes in a week, and I especially missed not having them on St. Patrick’s Day. (Also pretty annoyed that I already drank all my alcohol, but I’m trying to do a proper quarantine, so we’re just gonna suck it up.)

How much of your supply have you already eaten?

I’ve actually not eaten much at all so far, partly because 1. being in a heightened state of anxiety destroys my appetite (and makes me obsessively organize, in case you couldn’t tell), 2. I don’t really snack much to begin with, so there wasn’t much to work with on that front, and 3. because I am trying to be smart about how much I go through; if NYC does have to shelter in place, the supermarkets in my immediate vicinity don’t have as much of the stuff I’m into. And if I overestimated anything, then all of this will still get eaten because it’s food I genuinely like! 

How many people live with you that would be eating this?

I live alone, so it will (in theory) just be me eating this, although I did stick a note on my door to let my neighbors know I’m down to share if they run out of something and don’t want to venture out.

How much toilet paper do you have?

I have twelve single rolls of toilet paper that I just bought one at a time whenever I was in a supermarket or the bodega the past three weeks or so. I don’t know if that’s too much or too little, I just figured it made sense to keep tacking on another roll in a calm, rational, spread-out fashion.

Erik Loften, DC-based

Can you give us an overview of what’s happening and how many people are with you?

Working from home with wife, dog and cat. 

What’s the weirdest thing in your pantry?

Salt cod

What are you most relieved is in there?

Gatorade powder

Anything you wish you had but couldn’t get your hands on?

Flamethrower 

How much of your supply have you already eaten?

I made 14 tortillas 2 days ago. I have 0 left. 

How much toilet paper do you have?

B I D E T

Remember to tag us with your own pantry photos! That’s @brightestyoungthings on IG, @BYT on Twitter, #bythings everywhere!

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