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The Love Fridge Chicago is a mutual aid project addressing food waste and food insecurity by providing community fridges. Located in Chicago, Illinois, the public refrigerators are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so community members can use or donate to the fridge at any time. The organization partners with local restaurants, farmers, grocers, and community members to provide food^[3]. The Love Fridge was started by a group of people^[4] in 2020 after seeing similar efforts in New York during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of March 2023, there are 23 refrigerators^[5] in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Mission

The concept behind The Love Fridge is to provide food security to Chicago communities in need by establishing accessible community fridges in Chicago neighborhoods where people can drop off surplus food or take what they need. The organization aims to provide free access to fresh and healthy foods and meet the increasing demand for food assistance in low resourced communities in Chicago. The community fridges are stocked with vegetables, fruits, and prepared meals.

Additionally, the Love Fridge works towards bringing communities together through the art that is painted on each fridge. The idea is that the art displayed on the Fridges works to minimize the stigma and lack of dignity that accompanies food insecurity. The interactive art pieces also aim to encourage community members to talk about prominent social issues in their neighborhoods.

History

Love Fridge in Little Village, Chicago

In mid-2020, following the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis, local communities in Chicago looked at different ways to address food insecurity. As a result, The Love Fridge, a Chicago-based initiative, was created to feed communities through mutual aid by creating ways to mitigate food insecurity.

The organization of the grassroots movement that established The Love Fridge collective was done through Instagram and paper flyers across Chicago neighborhoods. The founding organizer, Ramon "Radius" Norwood, grew the idea from similar organized movements in New York and Los Angeles. From the initial organization of the movement, the collective has grown in members and now includes over 90 volunteers. The first of the community fridges started to appear in July of 2020. In September 2020, The Love Fridge began to construct additional shelving for food as well as basic shelter from the elements around their fridges for the upcoming winter.

Locations

Between, July 2020 to October 2020, The Love Fridge has installed 18 community fridges in the Chicagoland area, including in Back of the Yards, Bridgeport, Brighton Park, Bronzeville, East Side, Grand Boulevard, Humboldt Park, Little Village, Logan Square, North Lawndale, Palmer Square, South Shore, Ukrainian Village, and West Lawn.

Contributors

The Love Fridge Donation Guidelines

The Love Fridge operates through donations, which include donations of refrigerators and food items. All installed community fridges are hosted by an organization to provide them with power. All fridges are stocked by donors that include local food organizations, grocery stores, farmers markets, community members and local urban gardens. Additionally, local social justice organizations have contributed to the Love Fridge. Supplies have been donated from members of the Black Lives Matter movement, a food pantry operated by Marillac House Food Pantry, and local agriculture programs like Gardeners or the Farm on Ogden.

Community members are also allowed to be volunteer fridge managers, which entails conducting daily fridge evaluations. Additionally, local artists are invited to paint the fridges with custom art. The art painted on the Love Fridges is meant to reflect the communities the fridges are located in.

The Love Fridge has food donation guidelines that allow sealed packages, cheeses, fresh fruits and vegetables, pastries, bread, unopened dairy products, unopened fruit juices, eggs with visible expiration date, and cured meats in sealed packages with an expiration date.

Hosts

The Dill Pickle Food Co-op Market & Deli is the host of "The Dill's Chiller" located in Logan Square. The Dill's Chiller fridge is accessible during store operation hours.

Marz Community Brewing Company is the host of The Fridge at Marz located in the neighborhood of Bridgeport, the fridge is accessible 24 hours a day.

Dirt Farms, an urban farm that grows herbs and fresh vegetables, is the host of the Love Fridge located in Humboldt Park. The community fridge is accessible 24 hours a day.