Athens-Clarke County is known for its ferocious football team and its campus, sprawling with green lawns and historic brick buildings. Less commonly known is that it contains the second largest population of food insecure people in northeast Georgia, according to Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap. Government programs and non-profits have been fighting the issue since President Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s, but in July of 2020, a solitary fridge in downtown Athens led a new front against food insecurity.
“There is more than enough food and more than enough people who need food,” says Molly McClintock, initial organizer for Athens Community Fridge, “but then why are we missing the link that provides the people with food?”
Origins of the Athens Community Fridge
One afternoon this summer, McClintock was asked where the local free pantries were located, but she didn't have an answer. She decided to create a map, marked with all Athens Free Little Pantry locations. This not only made it easier to find the pantries, but more convenient for those who wanted to restock them.
During the process of making the map, McClintock had an idea to start Athens Community Fridge. Shortly after creating an Instagram profile for the fridge, her friend Mary Rose Callahan became an organizing partner on the community project.
The fridge rapidly garnered significant support from fellow community members and already had a new home outside of Caledonia Lounge. Owners of Caledonia, Stephanie Marie and her husband Bryant Williamson, reached out almost immediately.
"They told me to plug it in before I could even tell them about the possible liabilities associated with the fridge," says McClintock, "I will forever be indebted to them."
Athens Community Fridge's Mission
"Our role is figuring out how to destroy capitalist ideas of hierarchies," says McClintock, "and put forth this example of anarchist thought that comes with a newly imagined power structure where everyone has power."
Although McClintock pushed the fridge into motion, she makes it clear that there is "no one owner or sole proprietor." The fridge is for everyone and owned by everyone.
Vann Johnson, a friend of the fridge and volunteer since the fridge's conception, calls the fridge a "community care" approach.
"At the end of the day, you have to take care of the people around you," says Johnson, "it's up to us to look out for our own community."
Funding the Fridge
Within the first two weeks of announcing the project, McClintock and Callahan raised over $2,000 from individual donations.
Since then, local business owners and artists have raffled off gift certificates and pieces of art to raise money for Athens Community Fridge.
In August, Lydia Kinsey, part owner of Pink Goblin Tattoo, raffled off a $300 gift certificate to her studio and raised over $4,470. She split all of the proceeds evenly between Athens Community Fridge and Athens Mutual Aid Network.
Local artist Jessie Lamay raffled off custom-made ceramic figures and raised over $630. She, too, split all of the proceeds between Athens Community Fridge and Athens Mutual Aid Network.
"Honestly, we have too much money right now. I feel bad," says McClintock, "We are currently figuring out ways to redistribute funds through direct donations to people in need."
Community Response to the Fridge
If you happen to walk by Athens Community Fridge, it's not uncommon to witness a community member browsing the fresh selection of produce or grabbing a bottle of water to-go.
In fact, within five minutes of sitting in the parking lot of Caledonia, I met a man named Joseph, who was choosing between a packaged meal prepared by Campus Kitchen and a pre-made salad.
Since the fridge's conception, Joseph has been a frequent face. Sometimes he visits the fridge three to four times a day.
"[The fridge] really makes a difference," says Joseph, "I always go for the pre-made meals because I don't have a kitchen to cook food."
McClintock typically stocks the fridge every Monday, and by Wednesday the stock is visibly depleted.
Johnson says that he quickly realized it was going to be more of a struggle to keep the fridge stocked than having a surplus of food going to waste.
"I think that is a much better problem to have," says Johnson.
A Broken Fridge
On July 25, about two weeks after the decorated fridge began operating at Caledonia Lounge, it broke due to Georgia's harsh summer heat.
"To me that felt like a huge failure," says McClintock, "I had told people that this fridge would be an option, and now I am taking it away."
They had no option but to halt donations and compost the already stocked produce.
The Food Security Continuum
According to Abigail Borron, an associate professor of agricultural communications at the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, food insecurity is not about always going hungry.
Food insecurity is when someone does not have regular access to necessary nutrition-based food, which Athens Community Fridge provides via The Daily Co-Op Grocery's weekly donations of fresh, local produce.
Borron says that the more prominent area of food insecurity deals with those who may rely on emergency food systems due to temporary circumstances such as the loss of a job or medical conditions.
"In these cases, food insecurity oftentimes goes unmet," says Borron, "because there is a self-imposed stigma attached to relying on emergency resources like the food bank."
Johnson expresses a similar notion that everyone's needs are situated along a spectrum. There need not be such a stark dichotomy between the housed and the houseless.
Tales from a Brooklyn Fridge
Thadeaus Umpster has worked for In Our Hearts, a Brooklyn-based anarchist collective focused on providing mutual aid, since its conception in 2004.
The project is run by a loosely knit group of individuals, located in New York City, who are united by a common aim to provide aid to their community without the help of government and law enforcement agenices.
In Our Hearts started their first free community fridge in February, and there are now over 60 free fridges in the city.
Shortly after the first fridge launched in February, Umpster witnessed a disconcerting trend that brewed among some of the fridge's frequenters.
Entire cases of milk were hauled away by one or two individuals at a time. When asked where the milk was going, they would tell Umpster that they were simply handing it out to their neighbors. It didn't take long for Umpster and other fridge organizers to find out that the milk was actually being sold for a profit to nearby bodegas.
"We were fighting a hustler's mindset bred by capitalism," says Umpster, "Scarcity is a myth manufactured by the ruling class and there is more than enough food to go around for everyone, but we can't have it unless we work for it."
Although Athens Community Fridge has only been up and running for about three months and there is no evidence yet of foul play, Umpster's insight can teach our community about possible challenges in the near future.
In Our Hearts success with community fridges in New York City also gives hope to the success of Athens Community Fridge and the possibility of many more sprouting up.
In fact, McClintock and Callahan are about ready to install a second fridge location on Vine Street in Athens.
Community Fridges are a Form of Mutual Aid
In Our Hearts' dedication to community solidarity served as a key inspiration for McClintock and the creation of Athens Community Fridge.
McClintock describes mutual aid as a symbiotic relationship between members of a community, which stems from a robust understanding of basic Marxist theory.
"We are existing in a communal flow," says McClintock, "we can all help each other in a multitude of ways and it pays back itself."
After Umpster finishes his daily pickups and drop-offs of food to Brooklyn's fridges, he often comes home to a neighbor offering to cook dinner for him.
"It is truly a reciprocal relationship. Maybe I bring back a bunch of potatoes," says Umpster, "but you can't just eat a raw potato. You can't cook a potato if you don't have one. Both are integral to making that meal."
Mutual aid is a buzzword in the media today, but Umpster thinks most of it looks like charity rebranded.
McClintock says that most nonprofits and charities exist on a "parasitic ideal."
"They [nonprofits] operate on a mentality that is like, 'Hey we are helping this sort of leech and they should thank me," says McClintock.
McClintock attributes much of her insight about charities and nonprofits to her middle-class suburban upbringing.
"They are these people with influence, power, and money," says McClintock, " and they choose who deserves whatever they decide to give them."
Umpster says that mutual aid operates as a gift economy rather than a bartering system, which is a direct exhange of goods or services for other goods or services.
Gift economies rely on intangible rewards such as a sense of contribution and community, where goods or services are exchanged with no expectation of payback in return.
"Wouldn't it be nice if we all just shared what we had and everyone had enough?" asks Umpster.
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