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When Lis Webber moved to New York City’s Lower East Side, she found fully stocked refrigerators on the streets of her neighborhood. Intrigued, Webber soon learned they were part of a grassroots effort across NYC known as community fridges.

The refrigerators — stocked with free, fresh food, and maintained by local nonprofit organizations — are intended to serve any person in need of food. Webber, a Syracuse University alum, felt inspired by the concept and the community it created. She returned to Syracuse in January 2024 determined to replicate the model in her hometown.

“I was just so taken with the framework and the community involvement of it all,” Webber said. “So when I moved back to Syracuse, I decided to start my own.”

Webber founded the Syracuse Community Fridge in May 2024 to combat food insecurity in the city. The fridge, located at All Saints Church near SU’s South Campus, is set to be fully functional by March 20. It will be the city’s first publicly accessible community fridge.

“It really is a self-sufficient thing that proves as a community, we can take care of each other,” she said. “It’s not transactional. It’s really just like a shared table, a shared fridge for people.”

The fridge system uses a “take what you need, leave what you don’t” model, Webber said. Anyone who needs to can take food from the fridge, while those with extra groceries can donate items to help keep it stocked.

While Webber received grant funding from the Jim and Juli Boeheim Foundation and the Christian Brothers Academy to get the project off the ground, she said the initiative relies on the generosity and involvement of the community to sustain itself.

The flagship location is to be the first of many, Webber said, as the organization plans to open more refrigerators throughout the city in the future.

Though new to Syracuse, community fridges began to appear across the U.S. in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, hundreds of fridges have been established throughout the United States, Vox reported.

Alex Levy | Contributing Designer

The growing network of fridges has become vital in cities like Syracuse that face widespread food insecurity and food deserts — areas with limited access to healthy food and grocery stores.

These deserts are common in Syracuse, with neighborhoods like the South Side without a single full-service grocery store. In 2022, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli reported nearly 46% of children in Syracuse were living under the poverty line.

“Food insecurity really knows no bounds, unfortunately, so I don’t have any restrictions,” Webber said. “Anywhere that wants to have a community fridge, I would love to work in that community and with whoever wants it and needs it.”

Michael Songer, a pastoral associate at All Saints, said Webber’s goals with the fridge align directly with the church’s mission to serve all people. He met Webber last June at the Taste of Syracuse Festival where she tabled to spread awareness about her mission. Songer helped design an enclosure for the fridge to ensure it can stay open through the winter.

Songer said the beauty of the fridge is its accessibility, as it’s available 24 hours a day. Oftentimes, people in need may be apprehensive or not have time to attend local food banks or soup kitchens, Songer said, whereas the fridge is available 24 hours a day and protects its users’ privacy.

“This just provides an open and accessible alternative where there’s food welcome at any time,” he said. “Take what you need, leave what you don’t, and it creates that sense of agency and choice.”

The fridge system also allows users more dignity, Jess Miller, founder of The Kitchen Literacy Project, said. She recalled watching people dumpster-dive after local farmer’s markets, searching for discarded produce that was still edible. With the new system in place, Webber said she hopes market vendors will donate extra food to the initiative, rather than throwing it out.

Miller’s nonprofit shares a similar mission to the fridge, combating food insecurity throughout the city by providing free cooking classes to local teens. With President Donald Trump back in the White House, Miller said alternative, community-oriented strategies for combatting food insecurity are crucial, rather than corporate-driven solutions.

“It’s nice to be able to create spaces that are anti-capitalist. I think we need to do more of it, we’re such slaves to these large corporations and it’s to our own detriment,” Miller said. “I’m all about these types of opportunities for us to help each other across political lines.”

Courtesy of Lis Webber

Lis Webber founded Syracuse Community Fridge inspired by New York City’s grassroots efforts of publicly accessible fridges. After the COVID-19 pandemic, such fridges became popular in big cities.

Trump’s efforts to end diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs across the nation have raised concerns for Miller and Webber, who said such rollbacks could disproportionately harm marginalized communities already facing food insecurity.

In a since-blocked Jan. 27 executive order, Trump sought to freeze all federal loans and grants so they could be reviewed for their DEIA policies. With the order in place, funding for emergency food systems like food banks and fridges could be at risk of cuts.

“More and more we’re looking for small ways in this political climate where we can activate as a community and offer these things to each other and also be recipients of this type of thing,” Miller said.

As future federal funding for food assistance programs remains uncertain, Miller and Webber remain committed to local solutions. They believe grassroots efforts like the fridge are vital for combating hunger throughout the city.

Webber said while the fridge won’t solve systemic food insecurity by itself, it provides one immediate and accessible resource for those in need. She hopes initiatives like this will strengthen local support systems and inspire broader change.

“What’s so special about the community fridge program is that there’s no barriers to access, anybody can be involved with this project,” Miller said. “And I think that’s what’s so beautiful about this is just the sheer accessibility of it. The second that you put your hand on that fridge, you’re part of this project.”

Published on March 4, 2025 at 9:28 pm

Contact Delia: dsrangel@syr.edu