Community Fridges

This week, the Near West Side Partners interviewed Sarah Tramonte, Co-Director of Milwaukee Community Fridges, an organization looking to combat food insecurity in Milwaukee by creating fridges stocked with food across our city. Sarah and Co-Director Hataya Johnson set out to address one of Milwaukee's most major problems, food insecurity. First, they each individually reached out to a New York organization, A New World in Our Hearts, which has created these same community fridges in New York City. Sarah and Hataya were put into contact with each other, and Milwaukee Community Fridges started to take shape.

Pictured above: An example of a community fridge that can be found throughout the Near West Side

The Milwaukee Community Fridge's goal is to aid the food insecure, aiming to find food deserts with high rates of poverty within our Milwaukee community and give those areas a little boost by providing fridges stocked with necessities. Milwaukee community fridges was founded on the belief that everyone should have access to healthy and fresh food, regardless of their financial status or location. Within the COVID-19 Pandemic, Milwaukee Community Fridges noticed a need for extra support within low income communities that relied on public school systems to help feed their children, noting that the coronavirus shed a light on a failing system in our country, food insecurity.

The inaugural fridge will be unveiled Saturday, August 15th in front of The Tandem Restaurant in Milwaukee on 1848 W Fond Du Lac Ave. After this unveiling the organization hopes to add more fridges across the city to give residents some sort of peace of mind by helping provide a more reliable access to healthy food. Milwaukee community fridges also hope to reduce food waste from local restaurants, grocery stores, and various local businesses to ensure that excess food does not go to waste and is instead invested within the community.

The Near West Side Partners is proud to spotlight an organization bringing needed support to our Neighborhoods across Milwaukee, and encourage our readers to donate food, money, and their time volunteering with the organization.

Volunteer Form: https://tinyurl.com/y3chgq24

Cashapp: $MkeCommunityFridge

Venmo: MkeCommunityFridge