A few questions and answers about this directory:
What is a community fridge?
A community fridge is a fridge located in a public space to allow members of a community to share food with one another. Unlike traditional food pantries, people are encouraged to add to the fridge or take food out according to their individual needs. There are no limits imposed, no ID or paperwork required, and the fridges are typically open 24/7. Donations are provided by food relief programs, community members, businesses and farms with excess food, and anyone else who would like to help. Community fridges are organized by members of each community as an effort of mutual aid.What criteria was used to determine which projects should be included on this list?
As you may notice, some of the fridges here may not fall neatly into a grassroots or "mutual aid" bucket; a few are run by a 501(c)3 or city officials instead of a collective or neighborhood volunteers. I wanted to include them on this list because they are still doing important work that both offers space to share food while reducing food waste, and challenging the traditional charity model in some important ways.I intend to include projects for which the following things are true:
- A place (fridge or otherwise) that offers space to share food that is accessible 24/7
- No limits placed on people receiving food (take what you need)
- No means-testing or data collection requirements for receiving food
- Anyone can add food, without being part of an org (give what you can)
- Non-commercial; no money or goods exchanged for food
- Located in Massachusetts
You got my community fridge's info wrong/I have something to add or correct!!
Don't panic!!! Email me and I will sort it out asap.Why is this website so...simple?
I am an amateur web builder, with a soft spot for the old internet/web 1.0. I believe strongly in sharing access to information in a way that is clear, easy to navigate, and uses very little bandwith. You should not need a strong internet connection or to have your personal data mined by tech companies and data brokers in order to find or share food/goods within your community! So, this site has very little bulk, no cookies, no trackers, and no ads. I DID include links to social media, because most community fridges rely heavily on those to share updated information and/or do not have websites otherwise. (I DO strongly urge more fridges to consider doing up a simple website, even if it's just a little one pager with the basic info for people who are not on those platforms! And I'm happy to help if desired even though my sites look like a late 90's angelfire/geocities website)That said, I plan to add a recent photo for each fridge page in the future--so send me your prettiest shots please!
What else do you plan to add to this website?
The homepage or another page will have an area for NEWS: info on fridges that have closed, are just getting started, or in need of extra help. I'm still sussing what that will look like and how to organize it, since I don't know that putting it in a timeline would be super helpful. Might just have to try a few things and see what works best.I plan to fill the "Library" page with articles and other recommended reading on community fridges, other mutual aid projects, and mutual aid as theory. I also want to include info on starting yr own fridge, printables (zines, signs, etc that can be adapted for your individual community fridge), and links to similar directories. But I'm thinking now that that might be too much to put all on one page. What do you think?? I'm excited to launch this, even in an unfinished state, so expect some "under construction" gifs for a little bit and keep coming back to see what's new!!