(Image: Dorothy Edwards/Crosscut)

By Margo Vansynghel / Crosscut.com

If you didn’t know it was there, it would be easy to miss. To find it, ignore the view of Elliott Bay and make your way down a set of gravel steps. Walk past the apple tree in full fruit toward the small plots of land teeming with zucchinis and tomatoes. There it is, on your right, in front of the toolshed: a small, unassuming fridge, painted sky blue and decorated with a pattern of luscious peaches and emerald leaves.

“FREE FOOD!” black letters on the fridge exclaim. “Take what you need, leave what you can.”

The refrigerator, plugged in and nestled in the leafy shade of Seattle’s Danny Woo Community Garden, is part of a new, citywide network of so-called “community fridges.” Taking after similar projects in New York, Oakland, San Francisco, Milwaukee and other U.S. cities, a local group of volunteers installs and stocks the fridges as a way to get free, fresh food and produce to people who may need it, no questions asked. Amid rising food insecurity, this literally cool food pantry can keep produce and other surplus food donated by volunteers — eggs, bread,  yogurt — fresh for longer.

“We all need food, and we all deserve it,” says Christina Charlton, one of the Seattle Community Fridge’s volunteers. Plus, there’s plenty of it, says Jordan Saibic, another volunteer. “A lot of people don’t have access to food, [but] there is actually so much food that is thrown away, either from restaurants or grocery stores,” Saibic says. Continue reading →