Community members and city leaders celebrated the opening of four new community-powered fridges on the North Side of Milwaukee. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Friday, Feb. 27, at Metcalfe Park Community Bridges, 3624 W. North Ave., to mark the occasion. 

The effort to fight food scarcity by opening community-powered fridges comes after several grocery stores closed in the area, creating a food desert.

District 15 Ald. Russell W. Stamper II, who saw several grocery stores in his district close over the past few years, served as the event’s emcee. 

“We could either complain about the problem, or we could come together to find a solution,” Stamper said.

In July 2025, a Pick ‘n Save on the North Side closed, prompting the opening of a community-powered fridge at Tricklebee Café in the Sherman Park and Uptown area. Since then, several other grocery stores have closed in the area.

This led Stamper, FEED MKE, Metcalfe Park Community Bridges and One MKE to open four more community-powered fridges.

Christie Melby-Gibbons, executive director of Tricklebee Café, talked about the organization’s community-powered fridge. About a week ago, the fridge was empty for the first time since its launch, so staff turned to their online community for support. 

“Within 20 minutes, a woman came in with bags of food and filled the fridge for less than $100,” Melby-Gibbons said.

The community-powered fridge network is run by residents on a take-what-you-need, leave-what-you-can model. Taking a grassroots approach to solving food insecurity in the area, community members provide fresh produce and other healthy food options to ensure that their neighbors have access to nutritious foods.

“Everybody deserves to eat. I can’t go to sleep at night knowing my neighbors are hungry,” said Melody McCurtis, deputy director of Metcalfe Park Community Bridges.

Here’s a list of all the community-powered fridges:

Metcalfe Park Community Bridges

3624 W. North Ave.

Rooted & Rising- Washington Park

3940 W. Lisbon Ave.

Sherman Park Community Association

3526 W. Fond du Lac Ave.

Dominican Center

2470 W. Locust St.

Tricklebee Café

4424 W. North Ave.

Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

This article first appeared on Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Milwaukee Brewers were one of the more active teams in the league this offseason and it was one of the more shocking storylines to follow all winter.

They opted to trade Freddy Peralta to the New York Mets, which was a blockbuster deal, but it was expected. Peralta was on an expiring contract, and the Brewers were unlikely to be able to land a long-term deal with him. Milwaukee would much rather have control of Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams for the next five to seven years rather than a singular year of Peralta.

But they also traded Isaac Collins to the Kansas City Royals and Caleb Durbin to the Boston Red Sox. The Collins deal was a head scratcher, but the Durbin deal was the most shocking move of Milwaukee’s offseason.

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The Brewers traded Durbin and two other infielders to Boston in exchange for Kyle Harrison, David Hamilton, and Shane Drohan. Harrison is the biggest addition of the trade. Drohan has already flashed dominant potential this spring. Hamilton, who struggled last season, seemingly has the full belief of Brewers manager Pat Murphy.

David Hamilton could soon become a star for the Brewers

“He’s got so much ability in there, and he’s got experience, and he might be a utility player but I think he can be really good for us. I think he can take his offensive game to a whole other level,” Murphy said when talking about Hamilton, per Brewers beat writer Adam McCalvy.

Last season, Hamilton slashed .198/.257/.333 with a .590 OPS and a 63 OPS+. It was his third year in the big leagues and his second full year at the level and he’s yet to post an OPS+ over 100. But he’s still been worth 3.6 WAR over the last two years because of his defense and baserunning. The issue has been his bat. Even when he hit .248 in 2024, his OPS was under .700.

But Murphy seemingly believes Hamilton could take the next step at the plate, which would set him up to be a very good platoon infielder and versatile bat. He has the chance to quietly develop into a star with the Brewers if he can get his OPS over .700 and closer to .750. Obviously, this isn’t going to be easy, but Murphy seems to believe he’s closer to this breakout than many fans assume.

MILWAUKEE – Landmark Credit Union Live, Milwaukee’s newest concert venue, opened its doors on Friday. And with the Bucks playing next door at the same time, the whole area was hopping.

What they’re saying:

Fans flocked to Fiserv Forum to watch the team play the New York Knicks, and music lovers stood in line to see Rainbow Kitten Surprise on the opening night of Landmark Credit Union Live.

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“Very busy, very crowded the bars and restaurants,” said Ashley Evans. “That’d be great to add to the city again, to continue to bring more tourists out.”

“This is going to be amazing. I’ve been wanting to see them for a very long time, so I’m very excited,” said Rachel Lococo.

Fans line up for the official opening of Landmark Credit Union Live

Landmark Credit Union Live can host up to 4,500 people. Friday night’s show was sold out, drawing fans from places like Chicago, Minnesota, Iowa and elsewhere.

“Some people have driven from Indiana, so there’s a lot of people coming out tonight,” said Kade McCane, who came from Madison. “Honestly, really exciting to be among the first people who get to be there, and for RKS to be among the first people who will ever perform here, I hope this venue gets huge and big and becomes very popular.” 

The excitement was felt all around Milwaukee. Even the competition rolled out the welcome mat.

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“Our goal to grow as a city means that a lot of things have to happen. This is the very, tiny, small work that has to happen,” said Gary Witt, president and CEO of The Pabst Theater Group, which runs six nearby venues.

“The introduction of any new business in the city, especially one that pays attention to the fact that we have spent 24 years growing the live culture economy in the city of Milwaukee, says to me that we’ve done our job.” 

Witt said live entertainment is an industry Milwaukee’s economy has been dependent on coming from visitors like those who turned out Friday.