DURHAM, N.C. — The Triangle’s first community fridge is proving to be a success in Durham. The concept is sometimes known as a “freedge” because it’s a fridge with free food inside.
Asheville, Charlotte and Greensboro also have community fridges and the idea has taken off all over the world.
“The fundamental ideological thing that is driving me is that food is a right, not a privilege,” Beau Borek, a Durham Community Fridge member, said.
Durham’s first community fridge sits outside St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church at 1902 W. Main St. in Durham.
“I would say probably the main goal is to just create access to fresh food and prepared food for people in the community where they just can have open access to it at any time,” Taylor Holenbeck, a Durham Community Fridge member, said.
Holenbeck and Borek are two community members who help keep it stocked.
“Today we have some great collards and kale. We've got avocados, some shishito peppers,” Holenbeck said.
The produce that was stocked on this particular day was donated by a local company, Happy Dirt, and it probably would’ve been thrown out if it weren’t for the community fridge.
“We have so many restaurants, so many farms, so many food distributors, so many people with tons of access to fresh food here. It's really just about getting it in the right place,” Holenbeck said.
This initiative isn’t a charity or a nonprofit. It’s a mutual aid project where community members come together to help each other using resources they already have.
“As a community we can all support each other. You know, everybody has needs, but also everybody has the availability to help each other,” Borek said.
Since opening at the end of October, the fridge and pantry next to it have been restocked daily.
“Basically all the prepared foods are leaving every day and we stock it and maintain it every day. We're all like on a schedule and we're looping in more and more volunteers to be on that schedule as well,” Holenbeck said.
There are no restrictions on who can take from the fridge and pantry or even many requirements in order to contribute to it.
“We have a couple of community members that bring sandwiches they just make at their home. Then we have some regulations and guidelines of like they need to be labeled and dated and no raw meat. But beyond that, it's really fair game for anyone to add to the fridge,” Holenbeck said.
Members believe if a community works together there’s more than enough to go around.
“The more we can just evenly distribute whatever in this case, the wealth is food, which I think is obviously the greatest wealth, if you will, then our world is going to be better off and our community better off,” Holenbeck said.
Members of the Durham Community Fridge say they’re working on slowly expanding and are hoping to add a second location soon. In the meantime, the most in-demand items are prepared foods as well as nonalcoholic bottled drinks.
To learn more about the initiative, visit the Durham Community Fridge Instagram page or email durhamcommunityfridge@gmail.com.