LOS FELIZ—On Thursday, September 3, the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council made a post on its official social media page asking any willing businesses to host a community fridge.
There are two requirements that are listed as the host’s responsibilities: providing electricity and an accessible location. Other responsibilities, such as stocking, maintenance, and cleaning, is completely handled by community volunteers. As it is a community effort, this means that the refrigerator could be stocked by individuals or local markets or restaurants. The post states that while most businesses opt to cover the electricity fees in powering the fridge, with the average refrigerator costing about $30 per month in electricity, the LFNC would be willing to cover the monthly cost if necessary.
The existence of these community fridges are due to an organization named, LA Community Fridges whose mission statement is “to strengthen communities and redistribute existing resources by providing tools and frameworks to ensure people-supported, ongoing, equal access to healthy food.”
Their official Instagram page, offers information on the location and existence of community refrigerators in Los Angeles. It also provides a link to another page which redirects users to a map of active fridges, an FAQ, access to a Slack, and more.
Despite the community-serving nature of this project, not all city officials have been completely welcoming. The Highland Park, Compton, and Long Beach fridges were all shut down due to citations from the city and electricity cords being cut. Leadership has not given up, but are asking their followers online for new locations in the neighborhoods and invite any lawyers well-versed in city code to work together with them moving forward.
