[There's] a fridge set up on a street corner... in the Bronx. Neighbors and local businesses could donate food – homemade, store-bought, or leftover from a day’s sales – and anyone who needed food could take some..... At least 15 other community fridges have been set up in the five New York boroughs and New Jersey. Los Angeles and Oakland both have networks of community fridges up and running, and grassroots efforts to start community fridges in Houston, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Miami are taking off....How do you know when the food is "going bad"? This just doesn't seem wholesome to me. A refrigerator?!
A hot pink fridge with bright blue trim now sits outside [the home of a doula and software product designer named Tatiana Smith], with the words “FREE FOOD” and “COMIDA GRATIS” along the top. Neighbors help her watch the fridge, and people come looking for food at all hours of the day. “If you’re getting off work at 3am, that’s when you can have a meal,” Smith says, noting many Black and brown people may work multiple jobs with odd hours....
Smith says she never turns away donations unless they’re going bad, but she asks people to think about the fridge as an extension of their own. “If you wouldn’t eat that, what makes you think that other people would?”...
August 10, 2020
Have you ever heard of the street refrigerators of the United States?
The Guardian would like the world to think the United States is a place where there are refrigerators out on the sidewalk where people put their leftover food and from which the less fortunate can scavenge a meal: "'No one should go hungry': street fridges of free food help Americans survive Covid pandemic." This is a long article with photos. Excerpt:
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so, to Review
We Shouldn't (In Fact, CAN'T) go to church
We Shouldn't go to bars
We Shouldn't go to the beach
We Shouldn't go back to school
We Shouldn't go back to work
BUT! it's PERFECTLY FINE, to share food with strangers
i think i'm missing something
Foreign socialist views of the US as simultaneously an Uptonian dystopia with the plutocracy living in luxury and the masses in the severest deprivation AND as a country overrun with mindless hordes of consumerist proles buy buy buying is entertaining.
My two year old can't venture within six feet of Ken B without a mask or she's responsible for his death, but it's totally cool and safe and caring to eat random food scavenged from a 'community refrigerator.'
Give me a muthafuckin break. Can we be just a little not schizophrenic, just for a minute or two? Can we stop being completely goddamn ear-slicing insane?
Surely this could be replaced with a wildly expensive and ineffective government program complete with public service announcements. Given a few years, I'm sure they could create multiple overlapping government programs that fail miserably, thus spurring the need for multiple overlapping task-forces.
Hey, kids! Street refrigerators! Great place to play!
How do you know when the food is "going bad"?
Fairly easily with regards to refrigerated perishables. Obviously most dairy products have dates, plus there's always to sniff test (for those of us who still have a sense of smell).
In San Francisco, you don't need to risk questionable food from a street refrigerator when you can just walk into a store and take what you want...
Over in the City by the Bay's famous Tenderloin district, Cassie, a 21-year-old mother of two and a former heroin junkie, told Fox News that when times were tough, she too has stolen from stores.
"If my babies need diapers or formula, who is going to get that for me? No one. I have to do it," she said. "They ain't out here arresting people for (shoplifting) and everyone knows it."
https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-prop-47-shoplifting-theft-crime-statewide
It tastes better if you loot it yourself.
In my fairly upscale suburban neighborhood, there is a program to bring boxes of free fruits and vegetables to senior citizens. One of my neighbors participates as a "delivery person" and he put my name on the list. It appears that the food comes from a food wholesaler, and contains a somewhat random mix of food -- the last box had potatoes, onions, mushrooms, zucchini, 3 ears of sweet corn, 6 tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, apples, lemons, limes, oranges. My first box (I've only gotten 2) had similar food, but some was close to going bad, and I didn't plan aggressively to use up the food. So I imagine that a food wholesaler gets some kind of stipend from USDA, and puts together boxes of produce that is close to turning bad or beyond retail suitability. This is the closest thing I've seen to free food.
Street refrigerators? Yeah, OK. Never heard of it. Easy to unplug Refrigirator, then plug it back in, and have food spoil in the iterim.
"Hey, kids! Street refrigerators! Great place to play!"
Yeah...seems like a great place for a kid to crawl into (or be put into) and die.
Maybe they have releases on the inside these days like in car trunks, but if the refrigerator is on the street, I doubt it would be the latest, safest model...
“If you’re getting off work at 3am, that’s when you can have a meal,” Smith says, noting many Black and brown people may work multiple jobs with odd hours....
I'm glad she noted that, I was surely wondering.
"How do you know when the food is "going bad"?"
Because of the 'vids and an illness in the family that keeps me from venturing out too much, we (like many others) have been buying in bulk. We are always careful about not wasting food, but these days even more so.
I write the expiration dates of food (bread, milk, eggs, etc.) on a chalk board in the kitchen as a reminder to eat everything in a timely manner. If I think I will have a surplus I text my neighbors to see if they need anything...
When I was a little kid, adults put the fear of God into us about not going near an outdoor refrigerator. Apparently the door can close and not be opened from the inside and some children had climbed inside to play and died that way. I actually even remember that they passed a law (this was in NY) that refrigerators left outside (for trash pick up or any other reason) had to have the door removed. Funny the things we remember from long ago - but as soon as I read this, it came back to me immediately.
Assuming there are no health issues, how much food will be stored in a single refrigerator, and how many people can it support?
I would bet that more white people than black & brown people work multiple jobs with odd hours.
Nice. I sent her a leftover burrito.
We contribute to the local food bank housed at the local school. No problems for anyone.
Alcohol and marijuana are essential, too.
Who’s electricity are they sucking?
Need some long ass extension cords.
I remember the Far Side cartoon, When Vegetables go bad, with a shot of a refrigerator with scowling vegetables in little masks carrying baseball bats.
Gross. Is anyone actually taking food out of these? Supplying sealed, non-perishable food is one thing, but homemade food anonymously left in a fridge? Seems like a bad idea.
The Democrats would oppose these refrigerators because there can be no private charity, only tax dollars can be spent on the poor.
"The idea of community fridges – and more broadly, of free food for all who need it – has been around for decades. More than 50 years ago, the Black Panther Party distributed free breakfast to children out of a local church in the Bronx; a radical program for its time that paved the way for the US government to follow suit in 1975"
Umm..methinks the Salvation Army had a head start on BPP.
Hunting and gathering is back. We should be thankful for refrigeration Without it everything had to be fresh killed or salt preserved from March thru October. Rest of the year..see Althouse pics of frozen Wisconsin.
And you worry about your roommate stealing your food.
"This just doesn't seem wholesome to me."
Not eating isn't so wholesome either. There are many food pantries, kitchens and drop-in shelters operating in NYC offering free food to any taker, many of them run by local churches and religiously based charities (e.g., Catholic Charities of B & Q has said that they've been distributing 140,000 free meals daily during the pandemic, and there are many others). This street fridge thing seems to be a spontaneous, not-so-organized version that's sprung up, and comes with all the pluses and minuses of 'not-so-organized'. It's up to whoever is opening one of the fridges to figure out whether the offerings of the day are wholesome or not, and there's no guarantee they will get it right. But for those who can't or won't go to one of the many other alternatives offering free food, it's better than scavenging scraps from trash cans on the street, which also happens (the ones I've seen doing that look to be towards the far end of the clinically crazy scale).
The street fridge thing is like the street library or street clothing store -- people in Brooklyn often put out unwanted books, clothes, pots and pans, furniture, you name it, on the stoop or sidewalk, sometimes with a sign saying 'free stuff'. More helpfully, if the day's offering is a fan or some small appliance, there's usually a sign saying "it works", and maybe it even does. But the sign is just an encouragement to the shy -- not necessary at all. We've done that many, many times (there's a bag of kid's books on our stoop today), and the stuff always takes a walk sooner or later.
Just life in the City.
"How do you know when the food is "going bad"? This just doesn't seem wholesome to me."
I'm just amazed that The Guardian was able to report on it before someone jacked the fridge. Seriously, they must have wheeled it out when the reporter called to say he was on his way.
noting many Black and brown people may work multiple jobs with odd hours....
A whole lot of white people too.
But hey, screw them.
I bet the fridges get stolen regularly.
Also, I thought no one was supposed to leave refrigerators outside because children might climb into them.
Never seen them in person but I've seen on the Facebook Community Bulletin Board what they call the "Little Free Pantry" that are in front of each of the elementary schools. Sounds like people leave canned goods, boxed food, noodles... Nothing refrigerated. Doesn't seem like much control on what is dropped off or who picks it up.
Fridges don't latch and lock anymore, they haven't been built that way for my entire lifetime.
Bilwick said...
Yeah. You can't even put an old refrigerator out for garbage pickup with the door on it. It's considered an attractive nuisance and a hazard for children.
I think the idea of this is sweet, but think about all the health regulations we have around food, and who pushes for those, and why. And then compare.
For those of us of a certain age, we certainly remember the horror stories about kids hiding in refrigerators and dying. However, the Refrigerator Safety Act of 1956 (became effective in 1958) that prohibits selling refrigerators that can't be opened from inside. That's why all refrigerators built in the US for over 60 years use magnets to hold the door closed instead of the old style mechanical latches.
https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/pdfs/blk_pdf_rsa.pdf
{SEC. 1.}[15 U.S.C. 1211] It shall be unlawful for any person to introduce or deliver for introduction into interstate commerce any household refrigerator manufactured on or after the date this section takes effect unless it is equipped with a device, enabling the door thereof to be opened from the inside, which conforms with standards prescribed pursuant to section 3.
"noting many Black and brown people may work multiple jobs with odd hours...."
A whole lot of white people too.
So the BLACK woman pulling the goofy publicity stunt is an anti-white racist? That's shocking.
Seems unsanitary and I can't imagine anyone non-homeless eating from one of these refrigerators (I've spent enough time in soup kitchens to know that plenty of homeless people won't either--whether it's fear of illness or something else, some homeless are quite fastidious).
I can imagine people defecating in them, leaving the door open so they get full of bugs, stealing them, etc. If it's real, it's very temporary.
Couldn't follow this. Why leave it on the sidewalk, why not inside in a convenient building? Aside from that, we're just talking about food donations. Lots of places do have food donations. A lot of the caterers here in Baltimore, for instance, generally have loads of food left over after say a wedding, and health codes don't let them do anything with it. Throw it all away. The hosts of the wedding can take it all off their hands and donate it to a local charity.
This is not something I've seen or heard of in my country anywhere. But I don't live in the Guardian's USA. Never have. But I like to read about that place they call the USA from time to time.
I do recall that when I was a kid, if a refrigerator was left out on the street, we were told to stay away. Stay away or you'll get locked inside and die!
I sure hope no kids wander into one of these free food boxes mistaking them for a safe space. That would be a leftover too far.
"It tastes better if you loot it yourself."
Well, at least you know it's fresh : )
The refrigerators ought to have USB charging ports for phones, too.
The kid safety meme got started with old-school refrigerators. These actually has mechanical closure with an interlocking latch worked by a pull handle on the front. Very positive closure and nice in that respect, but completely unopenable if trapped inside. Current models have magnetic closure and can be pushed open from inside by anyone out of toddlerhood. The downside is that the closure is less certain and you will often find your kids didn't really close the door.
Refrigerators used to run forever, so I have seen a few old style still in use, but I doubt very much they would be used in a situation like this... Which seems a very bad idea for other reasons.
How do you know when the food is "going bad"?
Diarrhea and vomiting usually.
*sniff*
*sniff*
I smell Grade A Prime BS.
A better honor system than the notorious "office refrigerator"?
No, I have never heard of street refrigerators. The fact that they haven't been stolen or vandalized yet amazes me. The fact that they actually have food in them when anyone could just clear the thing out with no consequences amazes me. The fact that anyone beyond the completely desperate would eat random food from a public refrigerator amazes me even more. You generally don't want to be eating anything homeless people have been rummaging through if you can help it. You also don't want to trust your life to anonymous food donors who heard about the razor blade apples and started giggling.
@Althouse
You are a middle/upper-middle class white person. Unless you've ventured into some of the sketchier neighborhoods of Madison (are there any?) or other large, blue cities, you wouldn't be subjected to such sights.
These fridges are most likely found in crappy neighborhoods inhabited by minorities and/or white liberals too poor to be gentrifying, and thus, ruining the place.
You know, the places where woke millennials shop at 'Bodegas' and not grocery stores, because 'Bodega' sounds so much cooler.
I grew up in the Bronx and live in Manhattan now, and I never heard of such a thing. Sounds like fake news to me.
A heartfelt idea; a dangerous execution.
But, I mansplain.
Who supplies the electricity for these Refrigerators?
Wow! Those of you who are talking about expiration dates and smelling the food:
1. If food needs refrigeration, the expiration date would only apply to food that has been handled properly and KEPT under refrigeration. You don’t know if that’s happened with this food!
2. As far as food that would eventually smell bad, it is GOING BAD before it actually smells bad. You don’t know where it is on the path to spoilage if it doesn’t smell bad yet.
3. if everyone is opening things up to SMELL them, then food is being contaminated by this ongoing effort to determine if it’s badly spoiled!
JEEZE!
This is just very public virtue signaling. If you actually want to help, donate to a food bank.
Worse is better.
"Never seen them in person but I've seen on the Facebook Community Bulletin Board what they call the "Little Free Pantry" that are in front of each of the elementary schools. Sounds like people leave canned goods, boxed food, noodles... Nothing refrigerated. Doesn't seem like much control on what is dropped off or who picks it up."
We have these, but they are for sealed, non-perishable items like someone would buy at the grocery store, not people's homemade food and leftovers.
AA, why are you surprised by idiotic media organs like "The Guardian" pushing such minuscule things like this story? I mean, the cops are ticketing little girls selling 'Lemonade' because of permitting. But it's ok, to push this unsanitary garbage to poor people.
Ann Althouse said...2. As far as food that would eventually smell bad, it is GOING BAD before it actually smells bad.
And if 1 thing in the refrigerator smells bad, chances are the entire refrigerator smells bad.
So it's a cool dumpster.
Will be fine till Aqualung jizzes in the guacamole!
"Food insecurity is a major issue in New York City, where an estimated 1.4 million people rely on emergency assistance like food pantries and soup kitchens—a sum that includes one out of every five children in the city—and 1.5 million people receive SNAP benefits. Countless more people go hungry than any single statistic can measure."
As I understand it, the Bronx is up and the Battery's down. But beyond that NYC might as well be an alien planet to me and, apparently, to some people who lived there in what must have been a rather sheltered situation.
Maybe the poor people could move to Chicago where everything is free for the taking, not just chilled food.
"Who left the fridge door open, again?!"
Marshall Rose said...
Fridges don't latch and lock anymore, they haven't been built that way for my entire lifetime.
i'm So Old, that i've Already retired (early)
I'm YOUNGER than MOST of the people that comment here
Hell! Professor Althouse is younger than most people that comment here.
Old people aren't able to realize, that we aren't Still living in the world they grew up in...
That's way most old people are democrats
Umm..methinks the Salvation Army had a head start on BPP.
You DO realize, that it's RACIST to Even Mention the Salvation Army, don't you?
The Salvation Army is SO RACIST, that it refuses to allow Chicks with Dicks to sleep in shelter rooms with cis women and children
it DOESN'T GET more Racist that THAT!!!
Please Don’t Support the Salvation Army
It’s an anti-LGBTQ Church
by James Finn
No I haven;t seen (nor am I likely to see) street food refrigrators in an upper middle class suburb in Southern California. Free street libraries yes. They are here in some neighborhoods. We also have canned food drives for the poor. Then there are the cocktail parties for funds for downtown LA Skid row places.
Re the 21 year old mother of two shoplifting what she needs in San Francisco, Since 2014 California 'Petty theft" is the stealing of property with a value of less than $950. The statutory penalty is up to six months in jail. If the value of the property is less than $50 the prosecutor can treat it as an infraction --with no jail time, no penalty.
As a practical matter California police departments don't bother with petty theft. It would probably take being caught in the act of boosting a policeman's wallet to get arrested. And prosecutors won't prosecute it--the state is already turning people out of overcrowded jails and prisons.
Getting back to the street fridge and people eating food that was in the fridge--better that than dumpster diving for food that's been discarded.
"Countless more people go hungry than any single statistic can measure."
So assume there is an uncountably infinite number of hungry people. But there are a finite number of people on Earth. Therefore there are a countably infinite number of people not on the Earth. We conclude that Space Alien peoples must exist, and they are hungry.
I once picked up a free Hoover cannister vacuum from the curbside pile of "free stuff" left by departing college kids in May, when I was a poor grad student at an enormous state university. I cleaned it with several noxious chemicals I had available in my lab for sanitation reasons, and repainted it in its original avocado green. I used it until I graduated, too, and left it on the curb for another generation of students. That was in 1988; it is probably still cleaning up college apartments today.
Free food is a bit more iffy, but from what I've seen of the junkies here in relatively sanitary Austin, they don't care too much about germ theory or avoiding salmonella. They're more likely to OD from the fentanyl added to boost the high in their stepped-on heroin, than to get the runs from a pot of free pinto beans gone bad. That said, why not give them all the beans they want? And fentanyl, too.
There's a razor blade in every apple.
It wasn't too long ago that NYC's health department banned food donations from churches and synagogues to homeless shelters because the city wasn't able to "assess their salt, fat and fiber content."
It will be interesting to see what action, if any, the city will take on these refrigerators.
We already have something better than street corner refrigerators—EBT cards!
We have the only country in the history of the galaxy where poor people are overweight! If you’re stupid or lazy to walk to the welfare office to get an EBT card ...
“
Blogger Lewis Wetzel said...
I would bet that more white people than black & brown people work multiple jobs with odd hours.”
Oh, snap!
“ 8/10/20, 2:35 PM
Blogger Josephbleau said...
Therefore there are a countably infinite number of people not on the Earth. We conclude that Space Alien peoples must exist, and they are hungry.“
Well, don’t you expect that they will be really hungry after that long ride?
Speaking of food gone bad, there's been a large outbreak of salmonella from tainted red onions.
Refrigerators make for solid cover when Howard's and Inga's Heroes are on the march and torching buildings, assaulting people and shooting into crowds.
"Countless more people go hungry than any single statistic can measure."
J-school education.
My community has a "blessing box." It's not refrigerated, but you can put or take nonperishable food. Seems a lot more sensible. There might be an issue about canned food that requires a can opener, but that's about it.
"Maybe they have releases on the inside these days like in car trunks, but if the refrigerator is on the street, I doubt it would be the latest, safest model..."
Oh for crying out loud. What century do you and Bilwick think this is? You know they have these newfangled magnetic strips that hold the doors closed. They're really something. Been using them universally on home refrigerators for the last forty maybe fifty years or so.
I remember street pianos. The local mover would tune up a couple old uprights and put them outside downtown.
Then some bums would sit on the piano bench.
Haven't seen any around this year.
So someone, maybe someone who is experienced in consuming big city newspapers and periodicals, could figure out why all the big city politicos use rhetoric like: "Trump's storm troopers"? Perhaps they're pushing an agenda or something? Might be hard swimming against the current though. Wouldn't be prudent. Wouldn't want to draw the attention of undesirables I guess. Discretion is the better part of valor and all that.
Now that this has received news coverage the NYC Dept of Health will probably shut it down.Or the homeowner who is hosting the fridge will tire of the mess.
The whole thing reminds me of those little street library boxes: something that could only survive where there are no people who "need" them.
I'm still eating months old eggs out of mine. It's the perfect survival food, if you have a refrigerator that runs.
Who other than The Guardian believes a refrigerator, working or not, left on the streets of the Bronx would last more than a few minutes before it was "liberated?"
That anyone talks about kids being trapped in refrigerators just underlines how old old old those commenters must be. I'm the same birth year as Althouse and remember the Ur PSA's warning about the dangers of abandoned refrigerators, but I'd never think to repeat that today, much less anytime during the last forty years.
So what did Bob Dylan know and when did he know it?
Food banks work better but nothing says “LOOK AT ME” quite like a pink refrigerator.
If a church did this these same people would get it shut down.
Wait until someone sues.
Boy Trapped in Refrigerator Eats Own Foot!
I smell BS. For one thing a refrigerator draws a lot of power; a refrigerator on the street would require a very heavy duty cord for the length that would be needed. Doubt that the free food people would do that (hell, the junkies would steal the cord for the copper). It's a serious fire hazard.
Just when you think the Marxist can't get any dumber, they do!
I smell BS. For one thing a refrigerator draws a lot of power; a refrigerator on the street would require a very heavy duty cord for the length that would be needed.
200 watts. 14 gauge has a voltage drop of a volt per hundred feet.
William Perry requires no electricity
From online images, it seems some of them are commercial coolers, with sliding glass doors.
With enough organization, they could even deliver:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_Ireland_with_a_Fridge
If a homeless person in my neighborhood is in need, I would be much happier to provide him (and it's almost always a "him") with a bus or plane ticket to return to his family, who would support and encourage him to get his life back on track. Heck, I'd drive him to the bus deport or airport -- and, yes, I have offered this deal several times, and been turned down.
This is the wealthiest culture in the history of mankind. There are many private and government programs to provide food, rent, foster care for children, job training, etc. The grotesquerie of people "choosing" to settle in cities where they cannot hope to support themselves but prefer to rely on the mercy of strangers or the government shames us for failing to speak the truth.
A thought experiment: If I wanted but could not afford to rent in Paris' 16th arrondissement, would my only option be to pitch a tent outside Le Deux Maggots on the Boulevard Saint Germain?
" so, to Review
We Shouldn't (In Fact, CAN'T) go to church
We Shouldn't go to bars
We Shouldn't go to the beach
We Shouldn't go back to school
We Shouldn't go back to work
BUT! it's PERFECTLY FINE, to share food with strangers
i think i'm missing something. "
Yes !
Working people are taking the free food.
So far no reports of any homeless people.
I throw a Guardian newspaper in that fridge so that people can take a shit.
"That anyone talks about kids being trapped in refrigerators just underlines how old old old those commenters must be."
The city still has a rule about it. Can't put them out for bulky waste pickup unless they are professionally drained and tagged and the doors have been removed.
There are many outlets for free food in my town: mostly fruits, vegetables, canned goods, breads, dry goods. Nothing that perishable. One of my neighbors volunteers at a church which distributes food and once in a while she brings a load of stuff home. When Covid first struck I stocked up on a lot of canned goods, instant mashed potatoes from the USDA, etc., stuff I would not ordinarily buy. Many of my neighbors participate in a food subscription program which delivers food weekly. On occasion someone gets something they don't want and they leave it out on a bench, and sometimes people I know offer me items. I know it is a bit strange but there has never been a problem.
No street refrigerators though.
Not wholesome? Althouse says let them eat from a dumpster. I guess I exhibit olfactory privilege.
I guess there's an idea that this is food — from restaurants and stores — that will be thrown in dumpsters, and since there are people who will "dumpster dive," you're making it a lot nicer for them by putting this food in a refrigerator.
The idea is: they're "underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."
The people who are doing it probably seriously believe they are being charitable and feel good about their goodness. I think it should be illegal.
Along with "murals," yet another way to signal that your city is fast becoming a shithole.
Anecdote: As I mentioned there are numerous free food venues in my town. One called "Food Not Bombs" is located outside the main post office several days a week. One day as I was passing by the organizer was finishing up and had many left over French baguettes. He entreated me to take one and I didn't want to be mean so I accepted it and took it in a napkin. I wasn't sure what I would do with it but two blocks away I passed a homeless guy, very down and out looking, and asked if he would like it? He was overjoyed and very grateful. I was a bit shocked by the whole experience and very moved.
So maybe Bar had a point.
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