Food wastage is rampant everywhere. We have seen for ourselves how much food is wasted at weddings and parties that we attend. Now, in a noble attempt to fight hunger during the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuring that no one sleeps on an empty stomach, Los Angeles will install community fridges to store food for the needy. In these refrigerators, people can store surplus food or can donate to the needy so that the ones in need can be fed. Here are some pictures:
Refrigerator packed with foodAt Little Amsterdam Coffee shop Solo Morris holds the fridge door open as Danny Dierich stocks it wi… Read More
At Little Amsterdam Coffee shop Solo Morris holds the fridge door open as Danny Dierich stocks it with more items in Los Angeles, California. On a sidewalk in Los Angeles stands a shiny, clean refrigerator packed with milk, fruit, vegetables, chicken and other food, marked clearly as free for the taking. It is one of several ‘community refrigerators’ that began to appear this month on the streets of the city, which has very high levels of homelessness and is now hit hard by economic woes brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
Read LessUnlocked 24×7
The unlocked fridges have no watches over them and no forms to fill out or lines to wait for food. People can take as much food as they want. They are open every day, 24 hours a day. A sign in English and Spanish says “free food.”
No one will judge
“If you need to empty the fridge, no one will judge you. If you need to take one tomato, or you only put one tomato in there, do it,” said Marina Vergara, an organizer for LA Community Fridges, which has set up seven of the appliances and has plans for more.
Inspired by New York"I thought the concept of having these community fridges up in neighborhoods all around the city wou… Read More
“I thought the concept of having these community fridges up in neighborhoods all around the city would make, you know, just this kind of aid more accessible,” Vergara told AFP. The idea was inspired by a similar initiative in New York. Whoever needs food takes it, and those who can donate, do so, putting items in the fridge at any time of day or night.
Read LessSome leave shoes and clothingThe appliances are painted colorfully and bear upbeat messages, and beside them are boxes with non-p… Read More
The appliances are painted colorfully and bear upbeat messages, and beside them are boxes with non-perishables such as canned goods. Some people even leave shoes and clothing. “This fridge belongs to you & everything inside,” says a sign on a refrigerator in Mid City, which like many parts of Los Angeles is a mix of modern houses and condos spawned by gentrification and older, more modest homes.
Read LessNothing but love
Restaurants, supermarkets, NGOs and neighbors chip in to keep the fridges filled. “It’s been overwhelming. It has been nothing but love,” said Danny Dierich, manager of a cafe called Little Amsterdam, which provides the electricity for a fridge right outside.
Families need to be fed
“People come by every single day. They put goods in the fridge, they bring stuff in. It’s just a beautiful thing, man,” he told AFP. “We’re living in a very unusual time you know. Businesses have been shut down, people losing their job,” he said. “People got to feed their families.”
Help homeless people
Vergara, who started the fridge project with an organisation called Reach for the Top, which helps the homeless, said there are immigrants without papers who are afraid to go to food banks for fear of being detained and deported. Others are simply too ashamed to tap those resources.
Negative connotation
“I think that there’s definitely a negative connotation with standing in a line seeking support and aid from a nonprofit or the government,” said Vergara.
The freedom
“In a lot of communities, it strips away your pride,” she said. Her efforts give people “the freedom of being able to go to a community fridge at any time, whether it’s five in the morning or five in the evening.”