New community fridge aims to ease hunger in Anchorage – Alaska Public Media

On a sunny, Saturday afternoon, Ziona Brownlow confirmed volunteers the ins and outs of the brand new group fridge in Mountain View, a north Anchorage neighborhood that’s one of the ethnically various communities within the nation. It’s additionally an space that’s been focused by the U.S. Division of Agriculture as having excessive ranges of meals insecurity.

Brownlow stated about 10% of Anchorage residents, upward of 30,000 folks, endure from meals insecurity. 

“So one in each 10 people who we all know doesn’t know the place they’re going to get their meals from,” she stated. “They may should determine in the event that they’re going to pay for his or her prescription or pay for fuel, or in the event that they’re going to pay for meals.”

Brownlow hopes the brand new group fridge helps fight starvation within the metropolis, the place meals insecurity soared in the course of the pandemic and the place inflation continues to drive up meals costs. The group fridge had its grand opening on Saturday. “Convey what you possibly can, take what you want, and assist us #FeedAnchorage,” stated the invitation.

Brownlow began serious about the idea of a group fridge in the course of the pandemic.

She’d been working in meals activism since 2018, when she based Meals for Thought Alaska. It began as a weblog and he or she wrote in regards to the methods native companies had been serving to preserve folks fed. Then COVID-19 hit.

“My form of ‘store small, eat native’ mission bought drowned on this wave of ‘Save Anchorage’ and ‘preserve the eating places open,’” she stated. “And so I stepped away from that and meals running a blog and simply seemed on the very apparent want of workers being laid off, and the rise of homelessness providers, and the rise of want on the Meals Financial institution.”

She noticed group fridges pop up throughout the nation in cities like Miami, Atlanta and Chicago. And she or he determined to attempt to open one in Anchorage. She started organizing with different group teams.

Whereas it’s been a persistent drawback for years, meals insecurity ballooned in the course of the pandemic as folks misplaced their jobs, stated Cara Durr, chief of advocacy and public coverage on the Meals Financial institution of Alaska. 

“At first of the pandemic, we noticed the extent of want shoot up about 75%, which after all is simply unprecedented,” Durr stated. “Each day we had been speaking to individuals who misplaced all their family revenue, are turning to applications like SNAP and our meals pantries. And it has remained elevated ever since.”

Even because the pandemic has winded down, Durr stated points like inflation are protecting meals insecurity above pre-pandemic ranges. 

“So we’re seeing these ranges creep up actually near what we noticed on the peak of the pandemic, which is fairly scary,” she stated.

The Meals Financial institution works with federal grants and applications to distribute meals throughout Alaska, and so it’s restricted by which organizations it might accomplice with, stated Durr.

“We will’t accomplice with one thing like a free fridge challenge simply because there isn’t the extent of monitoring for meals security and regulation that we’re held to” she stated. “However simply because we’re not partnering doesn’t imply it’s not a good suggestion or one thing wanted by the group.”

Durr stated that’s additionally to not counsel the meals on the group fridge isn’t fit for human consumption, and Brownlow stated that volunteers observe nationwide meals security precautions when dealing with meals. Brownlow stated she thinks the group fridge is extra private than the normal meals financial institution mannequin. 

“We’re coming as shut as we will to mirroring what meals distribution seems to be like in a nonprofit industrial complicated, however decentralizing making it extra accessible at a grassroots, neighbor-to-neighbor degree,” she stated.

Brownlow needs the group fridge to enhance the work the Meals Financial institution is already doing.

The brand new group fridge is tucked proper off Mountain View Drive. It’s in regards to the measurement of a small shed, with a pair double-door fridges inside, like the sort you may see in a grocery retailer. There are stands for fruit and metallic cabinets drilled into the wall for canned items. Cup Noodles packing containers and granola bars had been stacked in a nook. The surface is weatherized, and Brownlow stated it was bear-proofed as nicely. Volunteers examine on the fridge all through the day.

For Alaskans seeking to get one thing to eat, it’s as straightforward as strolling up and taking meals.

Brownlow stated donations might be dropped off on the fridge doorways. And so they’re not simply accepting meals. On a desk close to the volunteer sign-up on Saturday had been speedy COVID assessments, and Brownlow stated different non-perishable, non-food objects like masks, gloves and hand sanitizer are accepted as nicely.

“Diapers, child method, hygiene merchandise, you could share them,” Brownlow stated. “I’m trying in right here and I’m seeing pads and there’s juice… there’s Similac in right here. It simply makes my coronary heart so completely satisfied.”

Brownlow stated she seems to be ahead to seeing different harm-reduction objects like bandages, contraception and fentanyl take a look at strips within the fridge.

Whereas the fridge isn’t restricted to only meals, Brownlow stated it’s restricted to what sorts of meals and items it might settle for at this level. 

“So we don’t have a freezer, and it’s simpler for us to keep away from any mishandling of meals if we don’t have any uncooked meats, any frozen meats, any frozen meals which may want to stay frozen,” she stated. “So we don’t need something like that there. We don’t need any medicine, alcohol, furnishings, clothes.”

Brownlow stated along with Mountain View, the neighborhoods of Muldoon, Spenard, Authorities Hill and Midtown have been focused by the USDA as areas with excessive charges of meals insecurity. She hopes to see fridges in these communities sooner or later. 

The Mountain View group fridge is now open daily from 9 a.m. to five p.m.