Street fridges in New York are offering free food to people who suffer the most from the pandemic crisis. Other American cities have also launched this initiative to help people who need it most in this time of crisis.
How does it work?
That is simple. Neighbors deposit food items in one of the community fridges for people in need.
Marianna Pita is a woman who will defeat Covid-19 and two months after her recovery she heard about a refrigerator installed a few meters from her house, specifically in the New York neighborhood of the Bronx. This fridge located there was so that the neighbors and local businesses could voluntarily deposit food inside the fridge so that the most vulnerable people could eat.
The purpose of this community fridge is to be able to feed all those who need it in a context of crisis due to the pandemic, which has claimed millions of family jobs.
Pita explains that no explanation is requested and no questions are asked. “Citizens helping each other is very different from how social services work, in which they ask you [about your need], because you have to meet certain requirements for them to help you. You have to respond to a certain profile “, explains Pita, who volunteers to deliver food to these stalls. “The message we send is different.”
Another 15 community fridges have been installed in the five boroughs of New York and New Jersey. Los Angeles and Oakland have also launched this initiative.
For decades there have been initiatives that manage networks of community fridges or food banks for those who need it most. Fifty years ago, the Black Panthers distributed free breakfasts to children at a local Bronx church; a program that was radical at the time and that paved the way for the United States government to follow suit in 1975.
