The effort to make free food widely available through self-serve refrigerators around Denver is catching on. One of the groups at the forefront, Denver Community Fridge, unveiled its fourth outdoor fridge on January 10 at Amethyst Coffee, 4999 West 44th Avenue. Several other organizations, including the Little Free Pantry and Little Big Fridge, are also part of the movement.
"If you give people a chance to care for one another," they will, says Eli Zain, who helped create Denver Community Fridges last summer along with a team from the University of Colorado Denver's Women and Gender Center.
Community fridges operate on the premise of mutual aid: Those who have the means stock food and toiletries, and those who are experiencing food or financial insecurity take what they need. The grassroots exchange allows people to care for their neighbors, and has especially resonated during the pandemic.