You might have heard about a clothes hand-me-down swap. The idea is to invite a few of your female friends over to your home or apartment or dorm room. Everybody who attends brings at least one item of clothing that she no longer likes or wants to participate in a swap.

The goal is that everybody gets to take home at least one “new to me” item, depending on her sizes and “likes”.

The rest of the stuff is donated to a thrift shop or other charity that accepts used clothing.

My mother came up with this idea: what about a pantry swap?

Here was the explanation: There usually are a few grocery products in everybody’s pantry that they no longer like or use, or ended up purchasing too many by accident. A family of siblings, a mothers’ group or such could meet with the intention of having a pantry swap.

Everybody bring at least one pantry item to put in the swap. Everybody who brings something hopefully finds at least one thing they’d like to take home instead. (For example, I’ll bring in a box of pancake mix and take home a can of soup instead; or here’s homemade jelly that I’ll trade for homemade salsa.)

Anything that is leftover, but acceptable by your local food pantry (some don’t take glass jars or homemade products) gets donated.

If you feel better donating everything to a food pantry, so be it.

But clothes swappers get their first choice of someone else’s leftovers before the pile of shirts and pants go to the thrift shop. A pantry swap could work just as well.