Health & Science News

Sidewalk fridges for the food-insecure 

By Joel Mitchell

On an early summer afternoon, Asmeret Berhe-Lumax was doing what she often does at the nonprofit food pantry she founded five years ago: Unloading boxes of groceries from a truck and stocking them inside a see-through sidewalk refrigerator and the food crates beside it. 

“It’s a very simple and straightforward process,” Berhe-Lumax said of what her team of volunteers at One Love Community Fridges does. Among other tasks, they pick up donations from partners including Magic Farms, Brooklyn Public Library, Fire Department of New York High School and Apple computers.

“It does require a lot of coordination,” she added. “There’s differences in size, people’s ability, access to vehicles and distances.”

Unloading donations to One Love Fridges

She’d started One Love during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping those without enough food, including people who’d lost jobs and paychecks as the coronavirus raged. 

The pandemic ended. Still, roughly 44 million people in the United States, including more than 13 million children, face food insecurity, according to Feeding America. Across New York’s five boroughs, more than 1.4 million, including one in four children, experience food insecurity, according to City Harvest. 

Those facts continue to drive Berhe-Lumax, who began her project with the help of her two daughters. 

These days, she and her network volunteers unload cartons of eggs, fresh produce and shelf-stable canned and boxed goods for what are 25 sidewalk fridges across the five boroughs of New York City. Thus far, as Berhe-Lumax keeps expanding her efforts, one fridge is in Seattle. 

Five years ago, Berhe-Lumax was working in fashion product development and production. “But I wanted to make sure I have a greater impact … ” she said. 

Berhe-Lumax’s love of food and recognition that some people don’t get enough of it started in her native South Africa, where food was central to her family. At their dining table, they celebrated family milestones and solved family problems. Her organization aims to help lessen hunger, the malnutrition hunger feeds and stigma associated with food insecurity through community building efforts.

Rhianna Jones is one of Berhe-Lumax’s neighbors and a volunteer for One Love. “It’s this incredible space to access amazing produce, incredibly nutritious meals that normally might be out of price,” she said. “I usually like to do little rounds and make sure the people who need it are the ones who get it.” 

For Berhe-Lumax, her project is about more than healthy food. It also aims to spotlight the intangible effects of being food-insecure, which she believes also undermines human dignity.

Empowering the community is what “we’ve been doing with One Love,” she said. “We’re to address real inequity and injustices. Not only do people not have enough food, but also some of the food people have access to is part of what’s making people sick.”