The community fridge located in Third Ward. | Courtesy of @HTXcommunityfridges on Instagram
Third Ward is the first area in Houston to have a community refrigerator as other major cities in the United States have started implementing them.
This refrigerator is located at 3801 N MacGregor Way in close proximity to UH and the ambassadors encourage students to come volunteer.
“I would like UH students to know that the Third Ward fridge is very close to them if they need volunteer hours,” said community fridge ambassador Vanessa Lipscomb.
“They can also sign up with a group of friends to stock and organize the things inside the fridge and the pantry items.”
Lipscomb explained how the refrigerator works and how locations were picked.
“The fridge is free to those who need it, no questions asked. They can come to a fridge during the hours it is open and grab what they need,” Lipscomb said.
The fridges are placed at businesses that agree to host and provide the electricity to run the fridges, but the ambassadors only look for businesses in places where there is a need and the neighborhoods are underserved, Lipscomb said.
How the refrigerator stays running is dependent on volunteers to help maintain it.
“People can get involved by doing behind the scenes work, volunteering at the fridge by working as a fridge monitor, and they can also volunteer to go to the store to buy groceries to put in the fridge, people can donate cash and if they feel untrusting they can bring the food,” Lipscomb said.
Recently an additional refrigerator was added next to the current one and there have been plans to bring more locations to Houston with have newly introduced three new locations.
There are two community fridges in Alief and one on Braeswood and Fondren.
While in midst of a global pandemic, volunteers are implementing precautionary measures to maintain safety and sanitation.
“Right now we are asking that if people feel sick to not come to the fridges at all,” Lipscomb said. “We are also asking that people have on masks and sanitize their hands before even touching the fridge handle or going in the area where the fridge is located.”
