{"id":165533,"date":"2024-09-09T14:02:15","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T18:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/?p=165533"},"modified":"2024-09-09T14:05:28","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T18:05:28","slug":"the-rise-of-the-community-fridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2024\/09\/the-rise-of-the-community-fridge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rise of the Community Fridge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Community fridges have been around for a while. They go by different names, such as \u201cfree fridge\u201d or \u201ccommunity pantry,\u201d but the aims are pretty simple. First, they help to alleviate\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2024\/02\/food-waste-explained\/\">food waste<\/a>, and second, they directly address\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ers.usda.gov\/data-products\/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials\/food-security-and-nutrition-assistance\/#:~:text=The%20prevalence%20of%20food%20insecurity,of%20a%20lack%20of%20resources.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">food insecurity<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The rates of food insecurity shot up during the pandemic, with two peaks. The first was at the start of the pandemic, as people lost jobs and so much was up in the air. And the second peak happened once COVID supports ran out. In 2022,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/economy\/food-insecurity-shot-up-last-year-with-inflation-and-the-end-of-pandemic-era-aid-a-new-report-says\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">17 million households<\/a>\u00a0in the US reported trouble finding food, which is additionally frustrating considering the amount of food that ends up in landfills.<\/p>\n<p>The amount of food waste in North America is staggering. In the US, close to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.feedingamerica.org\/our-work\/reduce-food-waste\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">40 percent of food\u00a0<\/a>is wasted, with 92 billion pounds of food thrown away each year. Canadians create 50 million tonnes of food waste every year, but there are estimates that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/madeinca.ca\/food-waste-canada-statistics\/#:~:text=Canada%20%E2%80%93%20the%20basics-,Canadians%20create%20over%2050%20million%20tonnes%20of%20food%20waste%20every,Canadian%20food%20waste%20is%20avoidable.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more than half<\/a>\u00a0of that waste could be prevented.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s where community fridges come in.<\/p>\n<p>The food comes to fridges in one of three main ways. Ideally, organizers have consistent larger donations from grocery stores and other retailers. If a grocer has a load of apples, juice boxes or lettuce and they know it will pass the sell-by date, they will often partner with a community fridge. Volunteers will pick up the load of food and stock the fridges as food becomes available. Then there are individual donations. These can be leftovers from your dinner or a loaf of bread you grabbed at the grocery store that you don\u2019t need. For many fridges, neighbors can pick up what they need and drop off what they have to give. Lastly, there are the restaurant donations. Just like retail stores, some restaurants partner with community fridges to pick up unsold meals and redistribute them.<\/p>\n<p>In this series, we explore how community fridges popped up in different neighborhoods, speak with folks who both use and volunteer at community fridges, and find out the best ways for citizens to get involved in their own community fridges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Community fridges have been around for a while. They go by different names, such as \u201cfree fridge\u201d or \u201ccommunity pantry,\u201d but the aims are pretty simple. First, they help to alleviate\u00a0food waste, and second, they directly address\u00a0food insecurity. The rates of food insecurity shot up during the pandemic, with two peaks. The first was at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1759,"featured_media":162933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":[33316],"meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33068],"tags":[33301,33084,33296,33303],"article-theme":[33292],"class_list":["post-165533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-access","tag-food","tag-series","tag-waste","format-series","article-theme-solutions"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Rise of the Community Fridge - Modern Farmer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Community fridges have been around for a while. They go by different names, such as \u201cfree fridge\u201d or \u201ccommunity pantry,\u201d but the aims are pretty simple.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2024\/09\/the-rise-of-the-community-fridge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Rise of the Community Fridge - Modern Farmer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Community fridges have been around for a while. They go by different names, such as \u201cfree fridge\u201d or \u201ccommunity pantry,\u201d but the aims are pretty simple.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2024\/09\/the-rise-of-the-community-fridge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Modern Farmer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ModernFarmerMedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-09T18:02:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-09T18:05:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Community-Fridge-147.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"854\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Emily Baron Cadloff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ModFarm\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ModFarm\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Emily Baron Cadloff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2024\/09\/the-rise-of-the-community-fridge\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2024\/09\/the-rise-of-the-community-fridge\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Emily Baron Cadloff\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c499204343f439cfa9d4b1d0c42741c8\"},\"headline\":\"The Rise of the Community Fridge\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-09-09T18:02:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-09T18:05:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2024\/09\/the-rise-of-the-community-fridge\/\"},\"wordCount\":351,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2024\/09\/the-rise-of-the-community-fridge\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Community-Fridge-147.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Access\",\"Food &amp; Drink\",\"Series\",\"Waste\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Food\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2024\/09\/the-rise-of-the-community-fridge\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2024\/09\/the-rise-of-the-community-fridge\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2024\/09\/the-rise-of-the-community-fridge\/\",\"name\":\"The Rise of the Community Fridge - Modern Farmer\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2024\/09\/the-rise-of-the-community-fridge\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2024\/09\/the-rise-of-the-community-fridge\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Community-Fridge-147.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-09-09T18:02:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-09T18:05:28+00:00\",\"description\":\"Community fridges have been around for a while. 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