Through partnering with the community and also utilizing the funds given to us by ChangeX, four months in we have 18 community fridges all over the city of Chicago. Located mostly on the South and West sides, we have tried to reach communities that are experiencing food apartheid as well as those who have been hit especially hard due to the Covid-19 crisis.

We have been able to use the funds for many different ways:
*to print paper flyers and informational material on the fridges to distribute and post throughout the community.
*to pay local artists for supplies they need to paint the fridges because we believe that all of these communities deserve something beautiful.
*to buy supplies to build shelters around the outdoor fridges so they can remain sustainable in the elements.
*to pay for moving equipment to get get the fridges situated.
*to pay to have hot meals and groceries placed within the fridges

We have been partnering with food distributors like Imperfect Foods and Gotham Greens as well as with some local restaurants and farmers/chefs to provide food for the fridges on top of the donations offered by the community. We have even started a mini fridge initiative that takes donated mini fridges directly to people in need within the community.

We are taking a break for the winter, but as soon as the weather gets nice again we will be starting to place more fridges around the city once more.

We currently have 4 fridges up and running in various places around the city! We've had several news interviews both tv and print. Its been an amazing and busy week but we are happily exhausted and so thrilled that people are joining our movement.

Where are the fridge located if we want to donate

We got the funding! We are very excited and currently have 2 fridges up and another one should be set up on Monday!

We just found our first host for our first fridge tonight! We are currently working with another community movement called The Grocery Run Club who have agreed to stock this fridge once a week for the next month, after it gets set up.

We are very excited to get the ball rolling.

We at The Love Fridge Chicago have a common belief, that feeding yourself is not a privilege but a right. Because of the pandemic, food insecurity is at an all-time high and keeping our community fed right now is more important than ever.

Our goal, as a collective, would be to help organize volunteers and donors, that would place community refrigerators throughout the city of Chicago, where people would be able to donate and/or take food 24/7. Through donation and sharing we hope to not only feed people, but also to bring the community closer together on a deeper level ; we are all in this together.

We are coming upon our third week of organizing at this point and we have brought together a large, and diverse group of sixty volunteers from all over Chicago. Through Slack, email and social media we are in constant communication putting out the call for the things we need and the work that must be done. We have also organized a very solid group of core organizers to make sure everything works smoothly and that we are being as effective as possible for our cause.

Now that we have a team, our first step has been to obtain donated refrigerators. Using social media platforms and paper flyers, volunteers have posted calls-to-action for people to volunteer, host or donate fridges to our cause. Because of this, in just two weeks we currently have three fridges in our possession and are scheduled to pick up another fridge in a couple of days.

This upcoming week our main goal is to start outreach to people and businesses so that we can find power sources/spaces to keep these refrigerators so that they can be accessed by anyone at all times of the day.

Once we find businesses to host our fridges, we will begin to reach out to volunteers, businesses and also to local farms/CSAs to help us fill these community fridges with food.

If we were granted the seed money by ChangeX, we could use it for a number of things:
-To incentivize businesses to be a powersource, by offering to pay for their refrigerator’s electricity bill for the year (average cost $150).
-We would also be able to buy cleaning supplies and extension cords to make sure these fridges are working properly as well as maintaining sanitation. .
-We could rent moving tools/transportation if necessary.
-We would be able to buy material to weatherproof some of these fridges come the winter months.
-We could ensure that if a fridge broke down we could pay for potential repairs.
--If donations were low for a location we could supplement food to fridges.

We appreciate the opportunity to apply for this program through ChangeX. The Love Fridge will continue to do our best to aid the houseless community and those experiencing food insecurity as best we can. Our volunteers are compassionate and proactive and ready to make a difference.

WONDERFUL!!!!

Meeting invite for Thursday!