In Fort Worth, these ‘funky’ outdoor fridges aren’t just colorful art. They fight hunger
Kendra Richardson and Kirsten Alario are fighting hunger in Tarrant County, one funky fridge at a time.
They make sure several colorfully painted outdoor refrigerators around Fort Worth remain stocked, ready for anyone who needs to stop by for free food.
Alario is part of Funky Town Fridge, a community initiative that has already given out 8,000 pounds of food to at least 5,000 families. Richardson is the founder.
These fridges aren’t in “food deserts.” Organizers call it food apartheid.
“Food desert implies that it’s something that happened naturally that’s outside of anybody’s control,” Alario said. “Food apartheid indicates that there are specific choices that are being made to allocate resources to other parts of Fort Worth and to not allocate resources to the lower income parts of Fort Worth.”
In Tarrant County, more than 250,000 people are food insecure as of 2021, according to Feeding America. Funky Town Fridge provides food through its fridges that are available at all times, without background checks or prerequisites.
Alario checks in with the fridges to clean and fill them. But anyone can drop off food to Funky Town Fridge locations, which are:
- Polytechnic: 2308 Vaughn Blvd., at the UFW Community Justice Center;
- Southeast: 4005 Campus Drive, at the Goodwill campus;
- Westside: 8700 Chapin Road, at Westside Presbyterian Church;
- Northside: 1600 Circle Park Blvd., at the Northside Inter-Community Agency.
Want to help in other ways? You can apply to host a fridge or volunteer at one.
This story was originally published October 19, 2023 at 11:24 AM.
