In the middle of a lonely Los Angeles sidewalk, a red refrigerator draws attention: “Free food,” reads large white letters with purple trim on the top door.
Clean, bright and cold, the fridge has everything: milk, fruits, vegetables, chicken, juices, cheeses … everything available to anyone who needs it.
It is one of several “community refrigerators” that began to appear on the streets of this city from the beginning of July, already with extremely high indigence rates and badly hit by the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
These refrigerators do not have a padlock, there is nobody watching them, there are no forms or lines, there are no limits on the portions. They are open and working every day, 24 hours.
“If you need to empty the refrigerator, nobody will judge you. If you need to take a tomato, take it,” explains Marina Vergara, a volunteer and organizer for LA Community Fridges, who has already installed seven in the city with a view to continue growing.
“The concept of having these community refrigerators in neighborhoods makes this type of aid more accessible.”
The idea, inspired by a similar initiative in New York, is that whoever needs to take it, and whoever can donate something, put it in the fridge at any time.
The refrigerators are painted in bold colors and encouraging messages, in English and Spanish. On the sides are boxes with non-perishable foods like canned goods and cereals. Some even leave clothes and shoes.
“This fridge belongs to you with everything in it,” he says in the red fridge located in Mid City, a very heterogeneous area like most in Los Angeles, where modern houses and condos warn of the arrival of “gentrification”, but where you can still see older, more humble residences.
Restaurants, supermarkets, NGOs and the neighbors themselves contribute to keep them always full.
“The community response has been enormous, pure love,” says Danny Dierich, manager of the Little Amsterdam cafe, which donates electricity for one of these refrigerators, located outside their premises. “People come every day, they put things in the fridge. It’s a beautiful thing.”
“We are in a very unusual moment,” he adds. “Businesses have closed, people have lost their jobs … and they have to feed their families.”
California has had to partially re-close its battered economy amid the alarming rise in the number of covid-19 cases, which are concentrated primarily in Los Angeles County with nearly 148,000 and more than 3,700 deaths.
Bars, restaurant salons, barbershops and other businesses stopped operating again, it should be further triggered by county unemployment, which in May closed at almost 21%.
Local authorities, as well as NGOs, churches and schools have opened dozens of food banks and popular pots to support those most affected by the crisis.
But Vergara, who promoted the project with the support of the NGO Reach for Top, which assists homeless people and is the head of operations, explains that there are undocumented immigrants who do not come for fear of being deported, but also that there are those who just feel ashamed.
“There is a negative connotation to being in line looking for support and help,” he says. “In many communities it takes your pride” so “the community refrigerator gives you the freedom to go at any time, whether it is at five in the morning or five in the afternoon.”
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