BALTIMORE — It started during the pandemic. Neighbor helping neighbor. And now, there are community refrigerators all across the city, like the one at 123 North Linwood Avenue in Patterson Park.
The fridge sits in front of the rowhouse where Karien Laurent lives. She started the community fridge outside her home in January 2021.
“I had some friends who were starting them in New Orleans,” says the Louisiana native, “and I thought it was a cool idea, so I just put one in front of my house.”
And people from the community have been filling the fridge ever since, like Omar Tarabishi.
“We want to make sure that those that are in need have a space that they can go and pick up food, no questions asked,” he says.
Tarabishi lives nearby in Highlandtown. With his nonprofit, Leftover Love, he goes to local businesses and collects leftover food that’s good but would’ve otherwise been thrown out at the end of the day. He takes the food he collects to a few places in the area. One of his stops is the Linwood community fridge.
“We make a post on Facebook and say, ‘Hey the fridge has been stuffed. You have bagels, you have patties.’ We have a lot of leftover baked goods from a local bakery. It’s fresh, it’s put in the fridge, or it’s frozen, and it can be taken back to someone’s home and eaten,” Tarabishi says.
A neighbor who lives a few doors down, Mthikazi Sipambo-Ulm, who goes by MT, says it’s a great way for those who want to give back but don’t have a lot of time.
“I thought it was an amazing idea, and I was kicking myself for not thinking of something like that,” she says.
Her family buys extra items at the market, like instant rice and baked beans, and they’ll share homemade bread or other leftovers.
“Sometimes we’ll have leftovers, or we will cook a lot of food, and just put that in small boxes and put it in the fridge,” she says.
“It is such a beautiful thing to see people that you don’t even know, and we get to interact because of the fridge,” MT says. “We usually see people parking their cars, and they’ll come and drop groceries off. It’s just refreshing and so heartwarming to see people coming together to help each other out. We’re just blessed to have her on our block.”
Sometimes, the need is temporary. MT said the community fridge is not just for those who are homeless or in dire need. The neighbors also benefit from it.
“It’s for us sometimes,” MT says. “I’ll be like, oh I don’t have rice this week, and I’ll take it and at the end of the week I’ll replace it. One hand washes the other.”
Laurent says she occasionally puts items in the fridge, but it is mostly community-supported.
“It wouldn’t be sustainable if I had to fill it up every day, so people come throughout the day all day and fill it up,” she says. “Some days it’s filled up several times, and it’s also emptied every day.”
A year after Laurent started the community fridge, the first refrigerator was stolen.
Once again, the community came together. A local business heard about the theft and donated the one that sits there now. A friend painted art on it. Other friends built a structure around it with wood and metal scraps.
“I think you’d be surprised if you’re interested in starting a community fridge that you can find a lot of stuff for free,” Laurent says. “A lot of people who maybe wouldn’t be able to host but who would want to pay for the fridge for you, so if you’re interested, cost isn’t as much of a factor.”
The Linwood community fridge is one of two in the city that goes year-round. The other one, a much larger community fridge, is run by the Laburt Improvement Community Association at 607 North Ashburton Street near Edmonson Avenue in West Baltimore.
Other community fridges are seasonal. The groups that run the one at 5218 Florence Avenue in Northwest Baltimore, and the one in Greenmount West at 209 McAllister Street, say they will be starting up again soon.
Laurent says she’s heard from others who want to start a community fridge.
“All you need is an outlet and some space, and that’s really it,” she says. “Keep it clean, keep it tidy. I love it, but I feel like it is loved by other people.”
