Four new community-powered fridges open on Milwaukee’s North Side

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.