They are called community refrigerators. They have been the way to salvation for thousands of under-poverty Americans who are unable to have a meal every day and whose situation has worsened further due to the pandemic.
2020, and also the beginning of 2021, saw a record increase in unemployment numbers and endless queues in front of soup kitchens. He was born then a spontaneous movement to help people in need. Community refrigerators have sprung up along the streets of America in the neighborhoods most affected by the crisis: some are simple containers, others are also connected to the electricity.
Mike Grant lives in Mott Haven, Bronx, and told the Abc how these refrigerators have been a symbol of hope. “We needed something like this. These small gestures are those that have more meaning than the others.
On the fridges it says, in Spanish and English, “free food”. Everyone who can is allowed to fill them: volunteers did it, people who live in the area, restaurateurs. Two teachers placed the refrigerator in the Bornx: Charlotte Alvarez and Daniel Zauderer. First-hand, in the classrooms, they have experienced what the statistics tell: one in four children is not sure about meals. The closure of the schools also took away those who were insured by the canteens.
These refrigerators are also useful for those, especially undocumented immigrants, who do not have the courage to go to public canteens for fear of being arrested or expelled from the United States. The most disadvantaged populations live in this area of ​​the Bronx. According to the New York Department of Health, only 3% of adults have been vaccinated here compared to 16% in the Upper East Side, a predominantly white area just 5 subway stops from the city. South Bronx.
Not far from the Bronx refrigerator is a restaurant, The purple, which has been making 500 meals a day since last spring for charity and some even go to the New York refrigerator network, part of a circuit that is nationwide. On the other coast, i Los Angeles Community Fridges: A network of merchants and volunteers installed public refrigerators in the poorest areas of the city filled with free fresh food.
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