大象传媒

Jammella Anderson kneels beside a bright pink refrigerator on a sidewalk in Albany, New York, stocking its shelves with fresh loaves of bread and heads of lettuce鈥攆ood that is free for the taking. A passerby stops to ask how to donate. She tells them where and how to sign up to give veggies, dairy, or prepared meals. They continue walking, then double back and ask Anderson whether they can donate the stale contents of their apartment fridge ahead of a move. The answer is an emphatic 鈥渘o.鈥�

To Anderson, the question epitomizes the problem she鈥檚 trying to solve as founder of Free Food Fridge Albany: A prevailing attitude that poor, Black, Indigenous, and people of color, as well as others who disproportionately face food insecurity, deserve only leftovers, day-old bread, or scraps. The Free Food Fridge flips that idea on its head.

鈥淸Food] seemed so inaccessible to me because food insecurity is something that I dealt with, and because we live in a city, you don鈥檛 really see where the food is coming from,鈥� Anderson says.

The problem is not only an economic one, or one of food scarcity, but also of food accessibility.

鈥淭his is all fresh food from the earth that people who are going food-insecure should be able to have.鈥� 

A community activist, yoga teacher, and doula, Anderson launched Free Food Fridge Albany last summer, at the height of the pandemic and resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. As a Black woman, she wanted to push herself, and White allies, to be less performative and more action-oriented when it came to addressing systemic inequities. That鈥檚 when she started thinking about food. 

Food insecurity in the United States,  as the consistent lack of food on a household level, severely increased during the spring of 2020 when the coronavirus swept across the globe. The pandemic exposed the tremendous faults in our structural systems鈥攕pecifically our economy. Anderson knew the problem would only worsen as neighborhoods already cut off from resources were disproportionately harmed by the economic shutdown, and millions across the country lost their jobs. In the Albany metro area,  compared to the previous year. 

The problem is not only an economic one, or one of food scarcity, but also of food accessibility. Enough food is produced around the globe to feed every human, , yet hundreds of millions go hungry every day. 

鈥淲hat can I do? What gap can I fill? How can I make something like food more accessible to people in the neighborhoods where there aren’t grocery stores?鈥� Anderson recalls asking herself.

So she put out a call to her , and someone suggested starting a free fridge. The concept is simple: In cities all over the country, vibrantly painted fridges sit on city sidewalks, stocked daily with donations of fresh food. Anyone is welcome to take as much as they need, no questions asked. 

Within a few hours, Anderson had a contact at Lowe鈥檚 and a new fridge on her hands. A single location on Elm Street in Albany has since grown to  across the metro region. They鈥檙e stocked and supported by a local grocery store, nearby farms and restaurants, and individual volunteers鈥攁s well as more than 500 people who donate funds monthly via Patreon.

Fridge beneficiaries can retrieve anything from milk to veggies and prepared meals. It鈥檚 impossible to count just how many people have benefited鈥攖he system is anonymous by design鈥攂ut Anderson says it鈥檚 been 鈥渆xtraordinary鈥� to see the impact: residents enjoying fresh okra for the first time in decades because it鈥檚 been mostly unavailable in Albany; neighbors forming relationships with local farmers; even some folks who relied on the fridges earlier in the year now have the resources to donate to it.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 been a really beautiful turnaround,鈥� Anderson beams.

Anderson鈥檚 effort is only one of a global network of community fridges known as the Freedge movement that has expanded during the pandemic. , a database and resource provider for community fridge networks, counts hundreds of locations across the U.S., . Many of these efforts sprung up to meet an acute need: increased levels of food insecurity during the pandemic. But the leaders in this movement see the fridges as part of a larger, long-term mutual aid effort that can solve systemic issues.

鈥淎 fridge by itself is just an individual action, but [with] many fridges, many projects, all of these other mutual aid groups together, that鈥檚 now a collective,鈥� says Ernst Bertone Oehninger, a founder of Freedge.

Bertone Oehninger sees the fridges as a visible reminder that many people don鈥檛 have access to enough food, and also a gateway that could create enough food for all through larger efforts that include the people power of mutual aid projects.

鈥淭he fridge doesn鈥檛 solve food insecurity. What it does well is start a conversation about food insecurity,鈥� Bertone Oehninger says. And that conversation can lead to a new urban farm, or more urban kitchens, or even systematic changes on a policy level.

A Global Problem

The world , but there are big problems in distribution, access, and waste, explains Nancy Roman, president and CEO of the Partnership for a Healthier America, and a 鈥渇ood systems champion鈥� for the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021. In the U.S., a half-eaten hamburger might end up in the garbage can, while in other parts of the world, crops may be left rotting in the field because there鈥檚 no infrastructure to get them to market. And even in countries where food is plentiful, it can be unaffordable for some and difficult to access for others.

That leaves nearly 10% of the global population鈥�746 million people鈥�, according to 2019 data from the United Nations. In the U.S., that number was about 35 million in 2019, .

With hunger and undernutrition, we know exactly what we need to do. It鈥檚 simply a matter of making it a priority.

鈥淚t鈥檚 gotten much worse because of COVID-19, because the people who lost their jobs were disproportionately the lowest income,鈥� says Roman. 鈥淧eople who were living on the margins got pushed into abject hunger.鈥�

Permanently fixing these complicated barriers to food access鈥攆inancial or otherwise鈥攚ill come down to political will, Roman says.

鈥淲ith hunger and undernutrition, we know exactly what we need to do. It鈥檚 simply a matter of making it a priority,鈥� she says. 

That鈥檚 why her organization is calling for a cabinet-level position on food, and wants to see food infrastructure incorporated into President Joe Biden鈥檚 $2.6 trillion American Jobs Plan. But in the meantime, the nonprofit, which works to increase access to healthy food, has multiple programs distributing meal kits to families in need around the country, in an effort to build the habit of cooking at home with fresh foods.

A Grassroots Solution

The community fridge networks offer a more immediate solution. 

鈥淭he existence of mutual aid is an expression of that frustration with the system. We鈥檙e not getting the things that we need, therefore we must do it ourselves,鈥� says Christine Tran, executive director of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council. 

Tran locates the need for community fridges in the same problem that Roman sees: A lack of equitable distribution of the abundance of food we already have. 

鈥淲e grow food for the world but can鈥檛 feed ourselves. And that says so much about the disconnections that exist within and across our food system,鈥� Tran says.

And so the community fridge networks take matters into their own hands, helping communities to help themselves and build systems of support.

Bertone Oehninger realized this back in 2014 as a graduate student at the University of California, Davis. He was inspired by mutual aid efforts he saw while living and traveling in Europe. Concerned about food insecurity in his own community, he plopped a fridge in his front yard and started offering free food to his neighborhood. 

It only lasted two months before the fridge was impounded by health inspectors. But Bertone Oehninger and his friends kept trying, moving the fridges around and eventually figuring out how to comply with health regulations. By 2016, the group had started fridges all over the U.S., some more successful than others.

鈥淲e realized that the fridges that really work well are the fridges that are started by the community, not by an outsider,鈥� Bertone Oehninger says.

So the Freedge website was born as a resource center that could support a decentralized network of fridges started by folks in their own communities. 

Tran, who was a 鈥渇ree lunch kid鈥� growing up, didn鈥檛 start the L.A. community fridge network, but she quickly came to support it as part of her organization鈥檚 work 鈥渃onnecting the dots鈥� of the local food system. 

There is little evidence on the impact community fridges have had on food insecurity鈥攊n large part because the system is anonymous and decentralized鈥攂ut Tran said it has had a positive impact locally.

鈥淚t really destigmatizes what support looks like,鈥� Tran says of the fridges. Anyone in the community can come to grab free food, with no strings attached.

It is also shows there is enough healthy food available for those who are most in need.

Successes and Limitations

Anderson was not an expert in food policy when she started putting fridges around Albany. While she sees the benefits of the project, she also realizes it does not solve the problem entirely.

鈥淲e are taking away many barriers, and we鈥檙e putting it right in your face, but it鈥檚 still not enough,鈥� Anderson says. 鈥淚 shouldn鈥檛 have to put Band-Aids on things like food insecurity. It鈥檚 the systemic part of it. Yes, I am putting a Band-Aid on, but if you look at the whole wall, it鈥檚 all cracking. It鈥檚 about to come down.鈥�

If we truly want everyone to have enough food, Anderson says, we need to look at the bigger picture, which includes making sure people have enough money to buy the food they need, making sure the abundance of food we already have is distributed effectively, and making sure young people are learning how to grow and cook their own food.

鈥淚t seems like a privilege to be able to grow your own food. And it鈥檚 not. It鈥檚 a human right. It鈥檚 a basic need, it鈥檚 a necessity to be able to grow your own food and eat it,鈥� Anderson says.

Even as the pandemic ebbs and momentum for the Black Lives Matter movement slows, Anderson hopes communities can continue the cycle of exchange they developed during the past year.

鈥淭his is a wake-up call. We need to stop placing the blame on the people who need the things, and realize that we all are living in abundance,鈥� Anderson says.