New York. The skyrocketing food prices have hit New Yorkers hard.
Rescue: Over a hundred refrigerators along the streets.
I wouldn’t have managed it otherwise, says Gwen, 60, who is raising her grandchildren.
In the middle of 120th Street in Harlem is a refrigerator. 60-year-old Gwen digs through shelves and sees expiration dates.
Cartons of milk, bananas and bread go to plowing.
– Sometimes you don’t have the money, like today – I don’t have nonsense! I got here early, and there was nothing. Now go back and get milk and bread. She says you have to be grateful for what you get.
Especially now, when food prices in New YorkIt indicates that one of the most expensive cities in the world is on the rise.
I get at least 80 percent of my food in the fridges. She says a little help goes a long way, by putting heavy boxes on her shoulders.
At home, her husband and two children, who she supports, are waiting for her.
– It’s really tough. My son recently passed away from a brain hemorrhage, and I am fighting for custody of his two children and for them as well.
Refrigerators are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
For many Americans, it’s a real punch in the wallet when they go to the grocery store. Food prices are up 13.5 percent from last year – the biggest increase in 43 years.
Street refrigerators started popping up all over New York in early 2020. They are filled with food that neighbors no longer need, or with stores that would rather donate food than throw it away.
The goal is twofold: to allow more people to get full in times of economic uncertainty, while reducing food waste.
The Swedish Sade Boyewa El, the first street refrigerator, a “refrigerator” or “community refrigerator” as it is also called, started in Manhattan at the start of the pandemic.
Then there were many who lost their jobs and needed help. But if you had a problem back then, it’s getting worse now. She says food, rent, travel costs – everything is getting more and more expensive.
Together with Xu Lu, 49, she pulls carts loaded with donated food through Harlem. As volunteers, they operate six to eight refrigerators in the area. Clean, and refill. Refrigerators are open 24 hours a day.
Anyone can choose whatever food they need without a single question.
– It happens that we fill the coolers five times a day, says Sade.
– Neighbors can sometimes peek at the windows, to keep track of when they are filled, Xu Lu continues.
When they fill the fridge on 120th Street, more neighbors flock to see the goods on offer. Today only: salad, fruits, beans, bread.
‘Too expensive now’
Today, there are more than a hundred street refrigerators scattered throughout New York. Most outlets are drawn to restaurants or stores that want to provide an outlet.
Available online digital maps Via coolers, with links to Instagram accounts where you can get instant updates of their content.
At the next cooler, on 155th Street, Agda Delacruz, 50, is scanning the day’s merchandise.
– I just came from the grocery store, but it’s too expensive now. I can’t stand anything, she says.
Agda is a single mother of two teenagers who still lives at home. She was also unemployed for some time.
– and there are not many jobs to apply for, which is why street refrigerators are so important – not only to me but to many people in the field.
Empty in record time
In the Brooklyn neighborhood, Thaddeus Ambester, 41, receives a new delivery in front of his house. A New York film studio donated several trays of leftovers.
He lifts food into the kitchen and packs it into smaller plastic boxes, like takeaway.
Prices are going up and rents are going up a lot. People struggle more. So this is something people need more and more. More have to turn to food banks and charities — and those neighborhood refrigerators, he says.
We try to do what we can so that people get enough.
In February 2020, he opened his first neighborhood refrigerator in New York. Find it for free on a buy and sell site. The original plan was to put it in the laundry room of the house, but it was not suitable for entering the door.
Instead, he pulled an extension cord and put it outside the house. filled it up. And I saw it empty in record time.
He belongs to In Our Hearts, an activist group that today operates as many as 70 refrigerators in the neighborhood. He says all kinds of people pick up free food when inflation is at record levels. Families with children, schoolchildren and pensioners.
– Here, a loaf of bread to give up! , says a neighbor, and tosses in an unopened box of leftover toast.
trying to resell
In addition to reducing neighborhood hunger, and slowing waste, Thaddeus says it creates cohesion. Many neighbors would like to contribute or choose something they need.
It happens that some people try to eat all the free foods at the same time. Some even try to resell the goods to stores, if they see a box of packages of butter.
– These coolers are here because people might have a hard time. So we can’t really blame them for taking it all. They are having a hard time, and they are just trying to make some money. But that’s not the point.
To prevent people from taking everything at once, or trying to resell them, they have three strategies: clearly labeling the merchandise with the word “free,” displaying it a little at a time, spreading the merchandise on several refrigerators, and opening packages a little at the time of the corner.
This will probably be emptied within an hour, he says of the new food cans, with mashed potatoes, meat, rice, fish, salad and pie from the movie studio.
We refill as often as we can, sometimes up to eight times a day. Everything disappears almost instantly. The need is great now.
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